Medical

Nanoparticle "cluster bombs" could provide less toxic chemotherapy

Nanoparticle "cluster bombs" could provide less toxic chemotherapy
The treatment ensures that more of the drug makes it into the tumor tissue, limiting toxic side effects in other parts of the body
The treatment ensures that more of the drug makes it into the tumor tissue, limiting toxic side effects in other parts of the body
View 1 Image
The treatment ensures that more of the drug makes it into the tumor tissue, limiting toxic side effects in other parts of the body
1/1
The treatment ensures that more of the drug makes it into the tumor tissue, limiting toxic side effects in other parts of the body

Doctors have been using the chemotherapy drug cisplatin for decades, but significant toxic side effects – which can affect everything from the kidneys to the inner ear – limit its effectiveness as a treatment. A new method, which makes use of innovative nanoparticles, could change that, providing a "cluster bomb" approach to delivery that shows signs of being significantly less toxic to the patient.

The ongoing battle against cancer presents a monumental challenge for medical researchers, but potentially significant breakthroughs are being made on a regular basis. Just this week, scientists at the Brigham and Women's Hospital announced that they had successfully tested nanoparticles engineered to glow in the presence of dying cells, providing a real time indication of treatment effectiveness.

Now, a collaborative team of researchers from the University of Science and Technology of China, Georgia Tech and Emory University, has also turned to nanoparticles, but with a very different goal in mind – to improve the delivery of drugs to tumors.

Designed to deliver the chemotherapy drug cisplatin, the system makes use of tiny nanoparticles – each just 100 nanometers wide – which break up into smaller particles when they reach the tumor sight. The drug-loaded nanoparticles are transported to the tumor through blood vessels, at which point the acidic environment around the cancer cells causes them to break up, discharging 5-nanometer-wide particles to the disease site.

These even smaller particles, which the researchers call "bomblets" then move inside the tumor cells, at which point the platinum-based cisplatin drug is activated, damaging DNA to kill off the cells.

The use of cisplatin isn't new, but administering the drug without the use of the nanoparticles – known as free cisplatin – has toxic effects across the body. However, when the pH-sensitive particles are used get the medication to tumors, the negative effects appear to be significantly lowered.

Testing the method on laboratory mice with human pancreatic tumors, the researchers found that the same dose of cisplatin delivered via the nanoparticles resulted in a seven times higher concentration of the drug in tumor tissue than with free clisplatin delivery. The fact that so much more of the drug made its way into the tumors with the new method means that less of thes ubstance was dispersed into other areas of the body, lowering the toxic side effects.

Of course, with much more of the drug present in tumors, its effectiveness at tackling the disease is also improved. In lung cancer models, the researchers found free cisplatin provided 10 percent growth inhibition, while the same dose delivered via nanoparticles yielded 95 percent growth inhibition. The method was also tested with invasive metastistic breast cancer in mice, where it extended the amount of time that the animals survived by almost 50 percent.

"The negative side effects of cisplain are a long-standing limitation for conventional chemotherapy," said lead paper author Jinzhi Du. "In our study, the delivery system was able to improve tumor penetration to reach more cancer cells, as well as release the drugs specifically inside cancer cells through their size-transition property."

Full details of the new drug delivery method are available online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Source: Emory University

2 comments
2 comments
EH
I was hoping that those "hairs" were DNA or antibodies tagged to the cancer that triggered the opening of the nanoparticle. Adding the pH mechanism as an additional requirement before breaking open might be even better.
Knut
This is outdated research: https://www.sintef.no/en/press-room/timeline/1978-tiny-spheres-to-treat-cancer--and-much-more/ and https://www.ntnu.edu/dmf/ikm - which is most likely the place to look for the latest, was awarded the Noble price in medicine last year - they traced how mice navigate with nano-particles. The "technology" to produce the nano-particles was discovered to clean emissions; the smoke is filtered and they had to develop a way to capture particles of the size of molecules. It turned out that the technology intended to make the air clean opened for producing new products entirely. Philips in the Netherlands made the first "devices" and was the largest industrial partner. Nobody has funded the US EPA to develop technology, American companies has instead funded research to show that the EPA was wrong in their claims that we needed cleaner air and less emissions. Prof. Ugelstad found a way. The last application for this has moved on the identification of virus, and the development of a technology to hold hydrogen in cars, allowing hydrogen to be used as clean fuel. Cars will soon be painted with this, or covered; they can treat the cover so that it becomes elastic and scratches and dents can be removed. It has changed material technology, allowing cement to be treated enabling the construction of oil rigs for the North Sea - and spectacular bridges like from Copenhagen to Malmø - Denmark to Sweden. The Chinese has acquired the right to this technology by acquisition of Elkem.