14 DAY TRIAL // A group of investigators in the United States announces the development of a new type of nanoparticle, that can be used to transport drugs directly into cancer cells. The method relies on the fact that all tumors are more acidic than the health tissue around them.
This trait was exploited by chemical engineers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), who were able to design their nanoscale particles in such a way that they only target the tumor cells.
According to the senior author of the research, the particles can be fully customized. This means that they can be converted into carriers for a wide variety of drugs. The main implication of this is that the approach could be used to address all forms of cancer.
This work was led by MIT David H. Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research member Paula Hammond. She is also the senior author of a new paper detailing the findings, which is published in the April 23 issue of the esteemed scientific journal ACS Nano.
“It is a nice proof of concept. This could serve as a general strategy to target acidic tumor micro-environment for improved drug delivery,” explains scientist Jinming Gao, who was not involved in the new research.
The investigator, who holds an appointment as a professor of oncology and pharmacology at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, praises the MIT team for its layer-by-layer assembly approach to developing the new particles.
What this means is that the constructs are covered in a protective layer that ensures the immune system does not destroy the drug carriers until they make their way to the tumor cells. Once this happens, a chemical mechanism destroys the protective layer.
The active compounds within are then released to attack the cancer cells. This ensures that only the damaged tissue is destroyed, and that the surrounding, healthy tissues remains unaffected.
The MIT team explains that studies conducted on lab mice revealed the new particles are capable of surviving in the bloodstream for more than 24 hours. This gives them enough time to accumulate at tumor sites, regardless of the location where they are injected.
Studies conducted on the body of mice revealed that the active substances the researchers put in their nanoparticles had penetrated the cancer cells, and were already starting to produce effects. This is still a proof-of-concept study, but one that is tremendously promising.