Two research teams in the United States have reported early results that could one day lead to new cancer treatments, although neither has yet been tested in people.
At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, scientists developed tiny particles that reprogramme immune cells while they are still inside the body, training them to attack cancer cells and harmful immune cells. In experiments on mice, the approach eliminated tumours and reversed liver damage, according to a summary of the work published by ScienceDaily.
Separately, a team at the University of California, San Francisco, designed a therapy that stays switched off as it travels through the body and only becomes active once it reaches the brain, where it targets aggressive brain tumours. Keeping a drug inactive until it reaches its target is one way researchers hope to reduce side effects.
Results in animals often do not carry over to humans, and both approaches would need years of further study and clinical trials before they could be offered to patients.