Chinese scientists develop bionic nanodevice to combat breast cancer

BEIJING - Chinese scientists have developed a bionic nanodevice that could provide a strategy for targeted therapy for metastatic breast cancer.

Scientists from the Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica under the Chinese Academy of Sciences have constructed a nanodevice, named rHS-DTX, which has a red blood cell coating and can be sent into the body. Their research was published in Advanced Functional Materials on March 1.

The device has been tested on metastatic breast cancer in mice, and achieved a tumor inhibiting rate of 98.2 percent and a lung metastasis suppression rate of 99.6 percent. No severe toxicity was observed in the major organs and blood of the mice.

Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women worldwide, and there is currently no cure for metastatic breast cancer.

Chemotherapy is still the main treatment for primary tumors and metastasis of breast cancer, but it is not able to effectively differentiate cancer cells from normal cells. The new nanodevice has shown a high efficacy in suppressing targeted tumors.

China has recently seen an increase in research applying nanotechnology to medical treatments.