Research at Aarhus University, Denmark, has shown what happens to nanoparticles in the bloodstream of a living organism.
Nanoparticles – spherical particles that exist on a nanometre scale – can be used as tools to deliver drugs, however only a small proportion of the nanoparticles ever reach their targets such as solid tumours.
Using zebrafish embryos, the team traced the journey of nanoparticles travelling through the blood to their final destination in the cell.
“Using cell cultures, we learnt quite a lot about how cells recognise nanoparticles rather as dynamic aggregates of proteins but it was never tested in a more realistic situation," said the leading author of the study, Yuya Hayashi of Aarhus University.