Nanomachine kills cancer cells in just 60 seconds

New hope for people suffering from cancer: An international team of scientists have developed a microscopic nanomachine that can bite through the cell wall of malignant cells and can ideally kill them within 60 seconds. The researchers see great potential in the method they have already tested in the laboratory for prostate cancer cells.

In a test conducted at Durham University, the nanomachines required between one and three minutes to drill through the outer membrane of the prostate cancer cell and thereby render them harmless. Under the microscope, it was shown that the cells that are being cannulated by the nanomachine are actually destroyed.

The "motor" is a chain of atoms (the image below shows an artistic illustration of the molecule), which is excited by a UV-light to rotate in one direction.

Artistic illustration of a nanomachine

Our goal is to use light-activated nanomachines to target cancer cells, even those that are resistant to chemotherapy available today, Robert Pal is quoted by Durham University in the journal "Nature".

This approach has the potential for a change in direction of non-invasive cancer treatment and better survival rates in patients, according to Pal.

Inspired by Nobel Prize winners

The basis for the nanomachine are, by the way, studies by Bernard Feringa, who won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry last year for the construction of the world's smallest machines because, according to the Nobel Prize laureate,

it has penetrated a new dimension of chemistry.

The Dutchman was the first to develop a molecular engine. Already in 1999 he created a molecular rotor blade, which is continuously rotating in the same direction.

Images and Source: Durham University