New Nanotechnology-based Cancer Drug Delivery

A newly developed nanotherapeutic drug delivery strategy eliminated clinically difficult-to-treat late-stage metastatic colorectal cancer and melanoma tumors.

The cancer treatment for colorectal cancer and melanoma is improved by using nanotechnology to deliver chemotherapy. This way of drug delivery makes it more effective against aggressive tumors.

Researchers preferred nanotechnology because of its ability to improve drug movement and therapeutic efficacy, as well as the potential to reduce systemic toxicities.

About Chemotherapy Drugs
Chemotherapy drugs perform like ‘magic bullets’ to destroy cancer cells in the body.

‘Nanotherapeutic delivery system boosts immune system’s ability to fight off cancer cells.’

Immunotherapies can boost the immune system’s ability to fight off cancer cells. Immune checkpoints are regulators of the immune system, which are pivotal in preventing the body from attacking healthy cells indiscriminately.

Some types of cancer circumvent these checkpoints, allowing cancerous cells to avoid detection and continue to spread.

Immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) is a newer therapy that can essentially release the brakes on the immune system and help the body fight back. ICB therapies are effective for some types of cancer, but they don’t work for every patient.

Colo-rectal Cancer - Management
Treatment for Colorectal Cancers may involve surgery,chemotherapy, radiation therapy or biological therapy. Some people require a combination of treatments.

Recent research has focused on ways to enhance the power of ICB therapies by combining them with chemotherapeutic agents such as camptothecin. Though camptothecin is potent, it is also unstable, has poor solubility in water, and can have serious side effects for healthy cells.

The research team created the first nanotherapeutic platform of its kind to overcome these hurdles. Using a nanotechnology delivery method, researchers enhanced camptothecin’s ability to synergize with ICB therapies, making them more effective against aggressive tumors.

�Drug Sponge� Could Minimize Chemotherapy Side-effects
A ‘drug sponge’ has been developed that can soak-up drugs from the bloodstream. Excess chemo drugs delivered to a tumor can be absorbed by the ‘drug sponge’ when inserted in a vein leaving the target organ.

As a result, this nanotherapeutic platform was able to increase the effectiveness of the ICB therapy to eradicate a large portion of early-stage colorectal cancer tumors while concurrently activating the body’s memory immunity, and preventing tumor recurrence.

Researchers also noted that their nanotechnology platform can be used to deliver a range of cancer therapeutics, and it has a significant head start in the drug development pipeline as it is derived from sphingomyelin, a lipid that is already approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Cancer Cells Exhibit Cannibalism to Survive Chemotherapy: Here�s How
Cancer cells can survive chemotherapy by resorting to cannibalism. This behavior provides them with the energy resources to stay alive and cause tumor relapse after the chemotherapy course ends.

These findings are published in Nature Nanotechnology.They also hope to collaborate with oncologists at the UArizona Cancer Center to further optimize the nanotherapeutic system to make it suitable for an early phase clinical trial.

Source-Medindia