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US scientists have created a nanoparticle drug that acts like a stealth bomber to smuggle its RNA-interfering payload past the body's defence systems and drop it on to cancer cells. It is, say the researchers, the first example of a nanoparticle that can seek out its target after being injected into the bloodstream and paves the way for the selective targeting of cells and tissues in the body while causing only little   'collateral damage' in the form of side effects. "This is the first proof of concept that RNA interference can occur in a human from delivered siRNA" - Mark...

One of HIV’s strengths — its ability to use human proteins to enter human cells or integrate with host DNA — may prove to be its undoing. Researchers have now identified over 250 of the human proteins that are needed by HIV to help it spread throughout the body, providing a treasure trove of potential HIV drug targets. Antiviral drugs, which typically attack viral proteins, have had a huge impact on the quality and length of life of HIV-positive patients. But HIV mutates rapidly, so these drugs can quickly become outdated. And since HIV only makes 15 different proteins, there...

Prion-infected mice survive longer A new method of treatment can appreciably slow down the progress of the fatal brain disease scrapie in mice. This has been established by researchers from the Universities of Munich and Bonn together with their colleagues at the Max Planck Institute in Martinsried. To do this they used an effect discovered by the US researchers Craig Mello and Andrew Fire, for which they were awarded this year’s Nobel Prize for Medicine. Scrapie is a variant of the cattle disease BSE and the human equivalent Creutzfeld-Jakob disease. However, it will take years for the method to be...