The team, led by Dr Maren Roman of the College of Natural Resources at Virginia Tech, has been working with cellulose nanocrystals - particles with many properties that make them perfect candidates for development of a new generation of drug delivery systems, according to the researchers.

"Cellulose has been traditionally used for the reinforcement of polymers," Dr Roman told In-PharmaTechnologist.com.

"Otherwise it had been largely overlooked, only gaining more attention recently after all the hype about nanotechnology. We're the first ones to consider cellulose nanocrystals as a drug delivery vehicle."

Cellulose has been routinely used in medical and pharmaceutical applications for many years (for example in pharmaceutical excipients or cellulose wadding for surgical use), and is a very benign material well tolerated by the body.

The nanocrystals are a suitable size to be carriers in drug delivery, and have many reactive functional groups on their surface to which drugs or targeting molecules could be attached.

With cellulose also representing a renewable resource, it could prove an attractive option for drug manufacturers.

Thus far the research team have been experimenting with targeting molecules, attaching specific antibodies to the surface of the nanocrystals, which would then be injected into the body.

"So far we've been working with antibodies, targeting cells that have become inflamed," Roman explained.

"The nanocrystals block the receptors on the cell and prevent that mechanism from happening."

This process could have applications in combating the effects of certain diseases involving inflammation of blood vessels, such as diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis or some cancers. It's also hoped that the process could be applied to create a new generation of vaccines.

Current research has focused on in vitro tests using antibodies, but the research team (a collaborative effort between the college of natural resources and the school of biomedical engineering and sciences) hopes to also start work on different types of drug molecules to be delivered using the cellulose nanocrystals.

Roman particularly hopes to be able to apply the technique to the targeted delivery of anti-cancer drugs, to help combat the problems associated with chemotherapy treatment which attacks all cells, healthy as well as diseased.

With research still at an early stage and another three to five years of work to be done before any submissions could be made to authorities for approval of the novel drug delivery system, Roman said that it could be up to 10 years before patients begin to feel the benefits of her research.

However, with novel delivery techniques of increasing interest in the pharma industry, the cellulose-based system could prove attractive to drug manufacturers trying to gain an edge in the market.

Roman and her colleagues present their research this week at the American Chemical Society meeting in Chicago.