tumor homing self-amplifying drug-carrying nanomolecules

[Lani]

Tumor-Homing, Self-Amplifying Nanoparticles Developed



NEW YORK (Reuters Health) Jan 08 - Scientists have created nanoparticles with amplified tumor-homing abilities. Adding an anti-cancer drug to these nanoparticles "is envisioned," they add in a paper in PNAS Early Edition published online January 8.

"The promise of nanomedicine is based on the fact that a particle can perform more functions than a drug," Dr. Erkki Ruoslahti from the Burnham Institute for Medical Research at the University of California, Santa Barbara told Reuters Health.

The nanoparticles in this case are coated with a peptide that recognizes clotted plasma proteins, and they selectively home in on tumors. This triggers local clotting, which creates more particle binding sites. "More particles find the tumor target than would be the case without the self-amplification," Dr. Ruoslahti explained.

"The system mimics platelets, which also circulate freely but accumulate at a diseased site and amplify their own accumulation at that site," the researchers point out.

Studies in mice show that the tumor-targeted nanoparticles selectively accumulate in tumor blood vessels and "partially obstruct blood circulation to the tumor."

"Having shown the principle," Dr. Ruoslahti said, "we are now optimizing the process, hoping to obtain a more complete shut-down of blood flow to the tumor, which would strangle the tumor. We are also in the process of adding a drug delivery function to the nanoparticles."

PNAS Early Edition 2007.