CARBON nanotubes have been used to smuggle HIV-blocking molecules into human cells.
Small interfering RNA molecules (siRNA) had been suggested as an HIV treatment, because they destroy messenger RNA, which is used to make the cell-surface proteins HIV needs to infect immune cells called T-cells.
The hard part is getting siRNA into T-cells. Now Hongjie Dai and colleagues at Stanford University in California have attached siRNA to carbon nanotubes, which penetrate T-cell membranes and deposit the siRNA inside the cells.
When siRNA-laden nanotubes were added to human T-cells, they blocked between 60 and 80 per cent of HIV receptor protein…
