MindPharm Blog

A California Institute of Technology (Caltech)-led team of researchers and clinicians has published the first proof that a targeted nanoparticle?used as an experimental therapeutic and injected directly into a patient?s bloodstream?can traffic into tumors, deliver double-stranded small interfering RNAs (siRNAs), and turn off an important cancer gene.


Caltech-led Team Provides Proof in Humans of RNA Interference Using Targeted Nanoparticles - Caltech

These results, published in the March 21 advance online edition of the journal Nature, demonstrate the feasibility of using both nanoparticles and RNAi-based therapeutics in patients, and open the door for future "game-changing" therapeutics that attack cancer and other diseases at the genetic level, says Mark Davis, the Warren and Katharine Schlinger Professor of Chemical Engineering at Caltech, and the research team?s leader.

Researchers at the Wistar Institute in Philadelphia found that mice lacking the p21 gene regain the ability to regenerate lost tissue, more or less like an amphibian.  

Humans could regrow body parts like some amphibians - Telegraph

According to the Wistar researchers, the loss of p21 causes the cells of these mice to behave more like regenerating embryonic stem cells rather than adult mammalian cells. This means they act as if they (are) creating rather than mending the body.

Their findings, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, provide solid evidence to link tissue regeneration to the control of cell division.