A parasite carried by billions of people worldwide often causes harmful infections during pregnancy and in immunocompromised individuals and is a leading infectious cause of blindness in South America. Once it enters the body, it can rapidly multiply, spreading from one cell to the next.

This single-celled organism, Toxoplasma gondii, belongs to the same group of microbes as the parasite that causes malaria and many other parasites of humans and animals. Cats are Toxoplasma’s main host, but it can infect most warm-blooded mammals, including humans, who typically become infected through contact with cat feces or by consuming undercooked meat or contaminated produce.

The parasite’s ability to survive and spread inside a host depends on its capacity to precisely control which proteins it makes and when. Proteins are the molecular machinery that carries out all of the parasite’s functions, from invading and manipulating host cells to making new copies of the pathogen that spread to other cells and hosts.

Researchers from the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore (NUS Medicine), have developed a swallowable nanoscale delivery platform designed to transport therapeutic enzymes through the stomach’s acidic environment and activate a cancer-killing reaction at tumor sites. Early preclinical findings suggest that the approach may offer a new strategy for treating gastric cancer more precisely while reducing damage to healthy tissue.

The preclinical study, published in the Journal of Nanobiotechnology, was led by associate professor Chester Lee Drum, Department of Medicine and the Cardiovascular-Metabolic Disease Translational Research Program (TRP), NUS Medicine, together with co-first authors Dr. Muthu Kumaraswamy Shanmugam and Dr. Girish Vallerinteavide Mavelli, both senior research fellows at the Department of Medicine, NUS Medicine.