Scientists in the US have made an artificial cell that can locate sites of disease within the body.rnDaniel Hammer and colleagues at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, and the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, say they can engineer the cell to release its contents on cue, allowing it to deliver drugs directly to sites of disease. This approach could be useful in treating diseases such as cancer, they claim.rnThe artificial cells, known as leuko-polymersomes, are made from polymers that can self-assemble into vesicles that can be used for drug delivery. Polymersomes have been used in this way before but Hammer has now developed a way to make them behave like white blood cells. This lets them travel quickly and easily through blood vessels in the body.
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