Nanoscale droplets might fight cancer

LLOS ANGELES, Calif., Sept. 8 (UPI) -- U.S. scientists say they have created nanoscale droplets much smaller than a human cell that might be able to deliver pharmaceuticals.

"What we found that was unexpected was within each oil droplet there was also a water droplet -- a double emulsion," said UCLA Professor Timothy Deming. "We have a water droplet inside of an oil droplet, in water."

"The big challenge," he said, "was to make these double-emulsion droplets in the sub-100-nanometer size range with these properties and have them be stable. We have demonstrated we can make these emulsions that are stable in this size range, which no one has ever been able to do before. These double nanoemulsions are generally hard to form and very unstable, but ours are very stable."

Emulsions are droplets of one liquid in another liquid; the two liquids do not mix.

"This gives us a new tool, a new material, for drug delivery and anticancer applications," said Associate Professor Thomas Mason, who co-led the study.

The research that included graduate students Jarrod Hanson, Connie Chang and Sara Graves, along with postdoctoral scholar Zhibo Li, appeared in last week's online edition of the journal Nature.