Functionalized red blood cells for drug delivery

“[R]esearchers at McMaster University in Canada have developed a way of emptying red blood cells, filling them with drugs, attaching a homing mechanism, and sending them out to find specific targets. “We call these super-human red blood cells,. . . To make this possible, the team modified the surface of red blood cells to make them attracted and stick to certain tissues, organs, or bacteria. In the process, they were able to replace the molecular insides of the red blood cells with drug compounds and to reconstruct the cell membranes so they again seem like normal blood cells. These modified cell constructs can then be injected into the body without triggering an immune response.”    MORE with VIDEO

Image Credit: McMaster University