Nanosize device ‘uncloaks’ cancer cells in mice and reveals them to the immune system

Scientists at Johns Hopkins Medicine have designed and successfully tested an experimental, super-small package able to deliver molecular signals that tag implanted human cancer cells in mice and make them visible for destruction by the animals' immune systems. The team created polymer-based nanoparticles and injected them into the animals' tumors. Once inside a cancer cell, the water-soluble nanoparticle slowly degrades over a day and releases a ring of DNA that makes the cancer cell produce surface proteins that work like red flags to say, "I'm a cancer cell, activate defenses."