Chemistry's Superbowl

In a development that could one day score a touchdown for better drug treatments, Chemists in Australia have created a "superbowl" molecule that could shows promise for precision drug delivery. 

The molecule receives its name from its football stadium shape, and is capable of delivering a variety of drugs, including painkillers and chemotherapy cocktails, to specific areas of the body, improving treatment outcomes.  Until now, manmade molecules such as these have had a very limited carrying capacity.

"The compounds we made are bigger versions of these original bowl molecules," says study leader Michael Sherburn, Ph.D., a chemist with Australian National University in Canberra. "These new molecules have much greater capacity and selectivity than their predecessors and show more promise for wider applications."

The molecule also shows promise for a wide range of other applications, including the removal of environmental toxins and aiding in chemical purification procedures, the investigators say.

This version of the "superbowl" still has a few bugs to work out before it can be tested in animals and humans.  It is not soluble in water and has the potential to be toxic, but Sherburn and his associates are confident these potential problems can be solved with further testing and chemical engineering.

The study was released in the Dec. 29 edition of the Journal of the American Chemical Society.