Singapore: A study conducted at the University of Louisville, US, has found out the way to create nanoparticles using natural lipids derived from grapefruit, and has discovered how to use them as drug delivery vehicles.

The reseach was conducted by a team led by researchers Dr Huang-Ge Zhang and Dr Qilong Wang. The findings have been published in Nature Communications. The research may revolutionize how anti-cancer drugs are delivered to specific tumour cells.

Dr Zhang said that, "These nanoparticles, which we've named grapefruit-derived nanovectors (GNVs), are derived from an edible plant, and we believe they are less toxic for patients, result in less biohazardous waste for the environment, and are much cheaper to produce at large scale than nanoparticles made from synthetic materials."