Mike King has struck again (earlier post on his work here.

His team just published an article in the journal Gene Therapy (a member of the Nature family) about a new drug delivery technique. The team filled nanoscale lipid capsules with a molecular cargo and coated the capsules with a targeting molecule. In this case the team used adhesive proteins called selectins.

The technique hijacks the immune response that occurs during inflammation, in which blood vessel walls express selectins, which in turn bind to passing white blood cells. The white blood cells then stick to the selectins and roll along the vessel wall before leaving the bloodstream to fight disease or infection.

The King capsules stick to white blood cells and are engulfed, delivering their cargo. Useful in this configuration for inflammation, leukemias.... !

Science Daily summary is here.

Article abstract is here.