New hydrogel nanoplatform that identifies and shrinks tumors in mice

(Phys.org)—Functionalized nanoparticles are one avenue of drug delivery for chemotherapeutics. However, getting nanoparticles to target the tumor site has proven difficult to do. One method researchers have used to target cancer cells is to create hydrogels made of filamentous bacteriophage (phage) and gold nanoparticles.Peptide binding ligands can be incorporated into the phage portion of the hydrogel that will then target known carcinoma cells.