Um....

So I was reading through the abstract book for a large international meeting, and my eye was caught by this one:

Sertoli Cell Mediated-Targeted Drug Delivery To The Lungs

A. Kumar, N. El-Badri, R. F. Lockey, S. Mohapatra, D. F. Cameron
University of South Florida, Tampa, FL.

Drugs for treatment of asthma and COPD are commonly delivered to the lungs by inhalation but penetration can be impeded when airways are obstructed.

RATIONALE: The purpose of this study was to overcome the limitations of inhalational asthma drug therapy by a cell-mediated nanoparticle delivery method.

METHODS: Rat Sertoli cells (SCs) were isolated, labeled with a fluorescent tag and loaded with chitosan nanoparticles (CNPs). The CNPs were coupled with the anti-inflammatory compound curcumin and tested in a mouse model of ovalbumin-induced asthma by intravenous injection. Penetration was quantitated by imaging the fluorescence of SCs and CNPs in lung sections and the therapeutic effects of curcumin were measured in terms of preventing mucus formation, goblet cell hyperplasia and infiltration of immune system cells into the lungs.

RESULTS: SCs were observed in the lungs 15 min after i.v. injection, but intact SCs had largely disappeared by 1 hr as shown by absence of SC. Scans of healthy mice showed that i.v. SCs target inflamed lungs and not other organs about 80% of the curcumin was present in the lungs. as determined by UV spectrometry and fluorescence respectively. By 24 hr, positive therapeutic results were achieved.

CONCLUSION: Our results demonstrate that extra-testicular Sertoli cells can be used to effectively target and deliver drugs to diseased lungs.

This made me envision the following conversation in lab:

Scientist1: "You know, I've been thinking."
Scientist2: "About what?"
S1: "I've been trying to think of a way to make inhaled therapeutics more effective, and I think I may have come up with a great idea."
S2 (interest piqued): "Really? What'd you think of?"
S1 (face beaming): "Ok, ready? [pausing for dramatic effect] Ground-up testicles."
S2: .....

(Note - I was also sorely tempted to make a whole mess of bad puns regarding the "impeded penetration" that they mention in their introductory sentence.)