Targeted nanoparticles swell-up to kill cancer cells

Nanoparticles covered with both positively and negatively charged ligands can target and destroy cancer cells, while getting past the defences of many drug-resistant cancers.

A team led by Bartosz Grzybowski and Kristiana Kandere-Grzybowska at the Institute for Basic Science in Ulsan, South Korea dosed cells with gold nanoparticles attached to thiol ligands, tipped with either quaternary ammonium salts or oxocarbons – each with a net positive or negative charge. The nanoparticles then clustered in cells’ lysosomes – the organelles that carry out recycling, leading Grzybowski to call them the cell’s liver.