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Researchers have found a way to implant a \u2018drug factory\u2019 into mice that bolsters the immune system in its fight against cancer. The team, from Rice University, Houston, USA, say these factories could one day be used to administer drugs to treat other illnesses, like diabetes or even COVID-19.<\/p>\n
In their recently published study, the team showed that the implants could eliminate ovarian and colorectal cancer<\/a> in mice less than one week after they were administered.<\/p>\n The implanted capsules work as a miniature factory, regularly creating and releasing doses of a compound called a cytokine, which is naturally produced in the body to tell the immune system when and where to work.<\/p>\n \u201cWe just administer once, but the drug factories keep making the dose every day, where it\u2019s needed until the cancer is eliminated,\u201d said co-author Prof Omid Veiseh<\/a>, a cancer researcher at Rice University.<\/p>\n \u201cOnce we determined how many factories we needed [to implant] we were able to eradicate tumours in 100 per cent of animals with ovarian cancer and in seven of eight animals with colorectal cancer.\u201d<\/p>\n