Delivery of health-promoting genes into cells of the body holds enormous promise for preventing and treating diseases. However, the vehicles for those genes in current approaches to gene therapy are generally viruses or synthetic materials, including polymers. The former can elicit harmful immune responses, and the latter can be toxic (SN: 1/18/03, p. 43: Delivering the Goods). Now, biomedical engineers have devised a technique that uses metallic nanorods as gene carriers, which the researchers say could avoid those risks.
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In the October Nature Materials, Kam Leong of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and his colleagues describe how they fabricated dual-metal rods measuring 200 nanometers in length and 100 nanometers in diameter. One half of the rod’s length is made of nickel; the other half is gold. To the nickel segment, the researchers attached DNA bearing a gene that coded for one of two proteins that make fireflies and some jellyfish glow. To the gold segment, the researchers attached a cell-targeting protein called transferrin.