People with diabetes mellitus often suffer from impaired wound healing. Now, scientists have developed antibacterial nanofibres of cellulose acetate loaded with silver that could be used in a new type of dressing to promote tissue repair.

A DNA-loaded nanoparticle has been designed that can pass through the mucus barrier covering conducting airways of lung tissue. Nanotechnology could one day provide an inhaled vehicle to deliver targeted therapeutic genes for those suffering from life-threatening lung disorders, the investigators say.

Precise targeting biological molecules, such as cancer cells, for treatment is a challenge, due to their sheer size. Now, scientists have proposed an advanced solution that can potentially be applied to thermal cancer therapy. An improved sensing technique for nanometer-scale heating and temperature sensing uses a chemical method to attach gold nanorods to the surface of a diamond nanocrystal, the authors have invented a new biocompatible nanodevice.

Polymer nanoparticles that release medicine at controlled rates inside cells have the potential to enhance the efficacy of many clinical drugs. Researchers have now developed an eye-catching way to evaluate the performance of different polymer drug-delivery formulations using luminescent quantum dots as imaging labels.

Dermatologists have found that the release of nitric oxide over time may be a new way to treat and prevent acne through nanotechnology.

Scientists coated nanospheres of the anti-cancer drug paclitaxel with a peptide shell that shields the drug as it travels through the circulatory system. When the nanosphere reaches a cancerous tumor, enzymes that enable metastasis slice open the shell to release the drug. The targeted delivery allowed them to safely give mice 16 times the maximum tolerated dose of the clinical formulation of paclitaxel and halted the growth of cancerous tumors.

In a move akin to adding chemical weapons to a firebomb, researchers have devised a method to deposit a thin layer of hydrogels on the surface of nanoshells designed to absorb infrared light and generate heat to destroy tumors. When heated by the nanoshells, these special hydrogels lose their water content and any drugs trapped within, creating a formidable one-two punch.

A nanoparticle gene delivery system has been developed by scientists that destroys brain gliomas in a rat model, significantly extending the lives of the treated animals. The nanoparticles are filled with genes for an enzyme that converts a prodrug called ganciclovir into a potent destroyer of the glioma cells.

Ischemic heart disease and stroke caused by thrombus formation are responsible for more than 17 million deaths per year worldwide. Now researchers announce new research that has been covering the use of nanocarriers and microbubbles in drug delivery for thrombotic disease.

Scientists have cracked a 35-year-old mystery about the workings of the natural motors that are serving as models for development of a futuristic genre of synthetic nanomotors that pump therapeutic DNA, RNA or drugs into individual diseased cells. Their report reveals the innermost mechanisms of these nanomotors in a bacteria-killing virus — and a new way to move DNA through cells.