Cobalt graphene nanoparticleWIKIMEDIA COMMONS, SUPERMASTER2011
Linking nanoparticles to antibodies that stick to a heat-sensitive channel in the body called TRPV1, researchers can open the channel by warming the nanoparticles with radiowaves, allowing calcium to enter the cells, according to a reports published last week (May 4) in Science. The researchers used mice that were engineered to release insulin in response the surge of calcium that TRPV1 triggered, but they were not aiming to design a therapy for diabetes, per se, reported Nature.
“There are many good treatments for diabetes that are much simpler,” lead author Jeffrey Friedman from the Rockefeller University in New York told Nature. The process, in which Friedman used a miniature MRI to produce the low-frequency radio waves that locally warm the nanoparticles, was used more as ...
