New nanodevice defeats drug resistance

Chemotherapy often shrinks tumours at first, but as cancer cells become resistant to drug treatment, tumours can grow back. A new nanodevice developed by MIT researchers can help overcome that by first blocking the gene that confers drug resistance, then launching a new chemotherapy attack against the disarmed tumours.

The device, which consists of gold nanoparticles embedded in a hydrogel that can be injected or implanted at a tumour site, could also be used more broadly to disrupt any gene involved in cancer.