Nanoparticle-based therapy for anti-tumour treatments
2018
Queen’s University, Kingston, Canada(1)
Royal Military College of Canada, Kingston, Canada(2)
Royal Military College of Canada, Kingston, Canada(2)
Smart drugs for cancer therapy have been a popular topic in recent years. However, the limitations of current 2D in vitro models to test these drugs have been a severe constraint in the development of safer and more efficient therapeutic agents. Nevertheless, 3D models have been shown to be a potentially valid alternative to increase the translationality of cancer research. Here, a functionalised nanoparticle is tested to target and penetrate in the inner core of an in vitro 3D multicellular tumour spheroid with human pancreatic and breast cancer cells to deliver cancer drugs. The results show that the nanoparticles could efficiently transport and release the hydrophobic drugs into the tumour spheroid core. Furthermore, this treatment induced a significant reduction of the spheroid's volume that was dose- and time-dependent. Overall, the researchers develop and describe a functionalised nanoparticle that can internalise and deliver hydrophobic drugs in the inner core of tumour spheroids, opening the door to more efficient cancer therapies.
Functionalized folic acid-conjugated amphiphilic alternating copolymer actively targets 3D multicellular tumour spheroids and delivers the hydrophobic drug to the inner core
Myron R Szewczuk(1), Cecile Malardier-Jugroot(2)
Added on: 10-18-2021
[1] https://www.mdpi.com/2079-4991/8/8/588[2] https://data.jrc.ec.europa.eu/dataset/ffebe454-ed9a-47cf-8a33-8cf70c1b7d38
