"Confirmation: Cells' Electric Fields Repel Nanoparticles"
Originally Published 1 year ago — by Phys.org
Scientists have confirmed that cell membranes generate powerful electric field gradients that repel nano-sized particles, affecting uncharged nanoparticles and potentially influencing the effectiveness of drug treatments targeting cells. The discovery, published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, provides the first direct evidence of the electric fields' role in repulsion and has implications for drug design and delivery. Understanding the behavior of molecules near cell membranes is crucial in medical science, as proteins in the membrane are frequent drug targets, and the cell membrane's effect on sorting molecules by size and charge could make a difference in cellular functions.