nanoparticle

Nanoparticles made to selectively bind to cell surface receptors expressed only on specialized cells can be use to deliver drugs for chemotherapy or genes for gene therapy selectively to specific cells. With choice of appropriate receptor, the drug or gene is internalized into the target cell. The nanoparticle is sufficiently small as to avoid eliciting an immune response.

References

Journal Watch 22(15):116, 2002 Hood JD et al, Science 296:2404, 2002