Shape of nanoparticles points the way toward more targeted drugs
A new study involving Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute’s Erkki Ruoslahti, M.D., Ph.D., contributing to work by Samir Mitragotri, Ph.D., at the University of California, Santa Barbara, found that the shape of nanoparticles can enhance drug targeting. The study, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, found that rod-shaped nanoparticles — or nanorods — as opposed to spherical nanoparticles, appear to adhere more effectively to the surface of endothelial cells that line the inside of blood vessels. …