In the past decade nanomedicine has contributed to better detection and treatment of cancer. Nanoparticles are hundreds of times smaller than the smallest grain of sand and can therefore easily travel in the blood stream to reach the tumor. However, they are still too big to be removed by the kidneys. Since several doses of nanoparticles are necessary to treat a tumor, over time the nanoparticles can accumulate in the kidney and cause irreversible damage. In a study published in the scientific journal Biomaterials, materials scientists at the University of Freiburg led by Prof. Dr. Prasad Shastri from the Institute of Macromolecular Chemistry now present a natural solution to this problem: they built nanoparticles with carbohydrate polysaccharides, which led to the excretion of the particles.
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Source: Phys.org