To understand how Cytoplasm' phase may develop the technology of medication

The phase of drug could be develop into another form in the future

One of the most difficult things in healing the patient’s body is to find the effective ways in targeting the infected cells. For instance, when we experience the inflammation in certain cells, the medication that we consumed is delivered to all body’s vessel and mostly all the cells absorb the compounds. This process has been used for many years until it can produce side effect.

Drug delivery technology has been becoming interesting for many pharmaceutical scientists in order to produce efficient and effective drugs. Today’s technology has been utilized the nanotechnology in order to make the absorption or adsorption process effective. However, nanotechnology is used to reduce the inefficient and ineffective procedure created by solid form drugs such as tablets and pellets drugs.

Another technology has been developed by reengineering the Nano-sized drugs so the pellets could be moved controllably to certain parts of the body. However, inserting electrically devices in human’s body could increase the risk of generating cancer cells. Nevertheless, the organic materials have been developed to avoid this risk.

Interestingly, scientists from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) were able to understand the cytoplasm which could be new technology in improving the drug delivery system. The lead scientist, Ming Guo from Department of Mechanical Engineering, found together with his colleagues about the properties of cytoplasm in human’s cells, and they have drawn the phase of the cytoplasm itself.

But, why it has to be cytoplasm?

Now, imagine you take the cell of your body. This tiny biological unit which is in spherical form theoretically then is observed throughout the microscope and then you slice it so it becomes two equal sizes. However, when you observe with the microscope it would be displayed as cross-section plane containing many different shapes. It is displayed by this diagram below:

The cell is composed by many organelles including the cytoplasm

The cytoplasm is located in all of the part. In this diagram it is illustrated on the box of C. It means that the cytoplasm holds all of the organelles so it can be imagined as water inside the aquarium which holds everything inside it. Therefore, the definition of cytoplasm as material that fills the cells means it moves to all organelles inside the cell.

Technically speaking, cytoplasm plays crucial role in biological process including glycolysis which is conducted in metabolic pathways. It means, without the cytoplasm the cell cannot metabolite and as the result the food that has been consumed cannot be processed.

Then, what is the connection between the movements and drug delivery system?

Apparently, the cytoplasm’s form is the answer. With its phase, the cell depends on it to proceed the metabolism. But, the study found that the cytoplasm’ phase is “experienced” differently by the organelles. I beg your pardon?

Yap, when the others organelles, let’s say the nucleus, the cytoplasm will be felt as liquid while the mitochondria will experience it as paste and so the same to the others organelles. The difference of “feeling” the phase of the cytoplasm lies on the size of the organelles because of the difference in experiencing the viscosity which is occurred from liquid to rubbery solid.

The understanding of how the organelles experience the “phase” of cytoplasm could have led the pharmaceutical scientist in reengineering the drugs. For instance, if the resistance of the organelles higher than normal then the drug must be engineered to the smaller one. Overall, this understanding may develop the way we use drug for medical treatment.