London, April 23: Scientists have developed a new technique to bind proteins to nanoparticles that can help make drugs "smarter" and more effective at reaching their target.
The new technique decorates gold nanoparticles with a protein of choice so that they can be used to tailor drug to more accurately target an area on the body, such as a cancer tumour.
Gold nanoparticles are spheres made of gold atoms having a diameter of only few billionths of a metre which can be coated with a biological protein and combined with drugs to enable the treatment to travel through the body and reach the affected area.
"Gold nanoparticles are a vital tool in new drug development and drug delivery systems. We have unlocked the key to binding proteins and molecules so that those drugs will be more effective," said Enrico Ferrari, a nanobiotechnologist from Britain's University of Lincoln.
Until now, the proteins used to coat the nanoparticles had to be mixed together with particles which do not have the ability to control the way they bind, possibly making the drug less effective.
However, the new method, published in the journal Nature Communications, enables pharmacologists to place the proteins onto the gold nanoparticles layer by layer in a specific order.
This maintains the integrity of the protein so that the drug is more effective, opening up possibilities for the development of nanomedicine.
"This method might help to design nanomedicines that do not need extensive chemical modification of a protein drug or a nano-carrier and therefore can be developed more easily and faster," Ferrari added.
Researchers took fragments of proteins from bacteria and flatworms, which when fused together were effective at binding to the gold nanoparticle surface and able to form stable bonds to any other protein.
By mixing this fusion protein with gold nanoparticles, it permanently binds to the gold surface while also being able to stably bind a target protein.
The novel method could also potentially be applied to biosensors and diagnostic kits that use gold, such as those used in clinical settings to identify ongoing infections in patients' blood, the researchers said.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
'Even Ajmal Kasab was given a fair trial': SC remarks in Yasin Malik case
New Delhi, Nov 21: Even Ajmal Kasab was given a fair trial in our country, the Supreme Court on Thursday remarked and indicated it may set up a courtroom inside Tihar Jail for the trial of J&K separatist leader Yasin Malik in a kidnapping case.
A bench of Justices Abhay S Oka and Augustine George Masih was hearing a CBI plea against the September 20, 2022 order of a Jammu trial court that directed Malik, serving life term in Tihar jail, to be produced before it physically to cross-examine the prosecution witnesses in the kidnapping case of Rubaiya Sayeed, daughter of politician Mufti Mohammad Sayeed.
The bench, however, remarked, "How will cross-examination be done online? There is hardly any connectivity in Jammu... In our country, a fair trial was given even to Ajmal Kasab and legal assistance was given to him in the high court."
Kasab, the lone Pakistani gunman caught alive after the Mumbai terror attack, was hanged till death at the Yerawada Central Prison .
The bench told Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the CBI, to take instructions on the total number of witnesses in the case.
Mehta pointed out security concerns and said Malik couldn't be taken to Jammu for the trial.
The law officer accused Malik of "playing tricks" for having asked to appear personally and not engaging a lawyer. Mehta said Malik was not an ordinary criminal and showed a purported photograph of Malik sharing the dais with terrorist Hafiz Saeed.
The top court said it could order trial to take place inside the jail premises and ask the judge to come to the national capital for the proceedings.
The bench, however, noted all the accused persons in the matter had to be heard before it passes an order.
Mehta said Malik appearing in the Supreme Court physically raised security concerns previously.
The bench said Malik could be allowed to appear virtually in the apex court proceedings and posted the matter on November 28.
The CBI in the meantime was directed to amend its petition and implead all accused persons as respondents.
In 2023, Mehta wrote to then Union Home Secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla flagging a "serious security lapse" after Malik was brought to the Supreme Court to appear in a case.
Malik, serving life sentence in a terror-funding case, was brought to the high-security apex court premises in a prison van escorted by armed security personnel without the court's permission.
Expressing surprise at his presence, Mehta informed the apex court there was a procedure for high-risk convicts to be allowed into the courtroom to argue their case personally.
The CBI said Malik, the top leader of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), was a threat to national security and cannot be allowed to be taken outside the Tihar jail premises.
The apex court on April 24, 2023, issued notices on the CBI's appeal following which the incarcerated JKLF chief wrote a letter to the registrar of the Supreme Court on May 26, 2023 seeking permission to appear in person to plead his case.
An assistant registrar took up his request on July 18, 2023 and said the apex court would pass necessary orders -- a decision the Tihar Jail authorities reportedly misconstrued to allow Malik to appear and argue his case.
Mehta referred to the CBI's contention in its appeal against the trial court order to bring Malik to Jammu for the in-person examination of the witnesses in the kidnapping case, and said under Section 268 of the CrPC a state government may direct certain people to not be shifted from the confines of a prison.
On September 20, 2022, a special TADA court in Jammu directed Malik to be physically produced before it on the next hearing for him to cross-examine prosecution witnesses in the kidnapping case.
The CBI challenged the trial court order before the Supreme Court as appeals in TADA cases are only heard by the top court.
Rubaiya was abducted near Lal Ded Hospital in Srinagar on December 8, 1989 and freed five days later after the then BJP-backed V P Singh government at the Centre released five terrorists in exchange.
Mufti, who now lives in Tamil Nadu, is a prosecution witness of the CBI, which took over the case in early 1990s.
Malik is lodged in Tihar jail after he was sentenced by a special NIA court in May, 2023 in a terror-funding case.
