Motorised molecules drill into cancer cells

Motorised molecules driven by light have been used to drill holes in the membranes of individual cells, including cancerous ones. The technique shows promise for either bringing therapeutic agents into the cells or directly inducing the cells to die. Dr Robert Pal at Durham University worked with researchers at Rice and North Carolina State universities in the USA to demonstrate in laboratory tests how rotors in single-molecule nanomachines can be activated by ultraviolet light to spin at two to three million rotations per second and open membranes in cells. Test motors designed to target prostate cancer cells broke through their membranes from outside and killed them within one to three minutes of activation, said Dr Pal. The cells showed increased blebbing ­- bubbling of the membrane. This effect can be seen, in the image above, as bulges from the small dark spots on a human prostate cell (stained green), which is under attack by motorised molecules. Targeting resistant cancer cells Dr Pal, of the Department of Chemistry and Biophysical Sciences Institute at Durham University, thinks that nanomachines could prove to be effective against a range of cancers including those that resist currently available treatments.