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Micro-doughnuts were discovered accidentally but could prove to be a drug-delivery express to the liver

The so called micro-doughnuts were discovered by a group at the University of Edinburgh accidentally when researchers added a small amount of dioxane to their usual ethanol solvent for polystyrene micro-spheres. This resulted in the micro-spheres forming with a hole through the middle and subsequently being nicknamed ‘doughnuts’. By testing the uptake into different types of cells Mark Bradley and his team from Edinburgh found that the micro-doughnuts had an overwhelming preference towards liver cells.

“Their unique and highly uniform structure was immediately interesting to us and we considered the possible applications they may have – one of which was as carrier particles for cellular deliver,” said Bradley.

Extensive in vivo testing in rats has confirmed the micro-doughnut behaviour – four hours after the injection into the tail of the rats, the micro-doughnuts were found exclusively in the liver region without any observable side-effects.

Although the team are eager to develop micro-doughnuts for effective and selective drug delivery they also recognise that they may have other applications in filtration or purification devices.

By Leila Sattary