Efforts to improve Americans' eating habits are working, a report from the US Department of Agriculture suggests. (Photo : University of Louisville )

Researchers have now found a way to use lipids from grapefruits to deliver drugs that fight cancer.

Grapefruits are known for their cancer-fighting properties, and now researchers from University of Louisville have developed a way to use natural lipids from the fruit to send drugs directly to cancerous cells.

"These nanoparticles, which we've named grapefruit-derived nanovectors (GNVs), are derived from an edible plant, and we believe they are less toxic for patients, result in less biohazardous waste for the environment, and are much cheaper to produce at large scale than nanoparticles made from synthetic materials," said Huang-Ge Zhang from University of Louisville, one of the study authors.

The study is published in the journal Nature Communications.

The research team demonstrated that the GNVs can deliver various anti-cancer agents such as DNA/RNA, proteins and drugs. The efficacy of these GNVs was tested on a group of people. The study participants were given curcumin in grapefruit nanoparticles. Researchers report that none of the participants have shown any adverse reaction to the therapy.

"Our GNVs can be modified to target specific cells - we can use them like missiles to carry a variety of therapeutic agents for the purpose of destroying diseased cells. Furthermore, we can do this at an affordable price," Zhang said in a news release.

For the study, researchers tested various fruits for their drug-delivery potential, including grapes and tomatoes. Grapefruits were studied extensively because they have many lipids that can be used to send drugs to cancerous cells.