Microfluidic platform to investigate mechanisms of drug transport
2017
Temple University, Philadelphia, USA
Tumor drug delivery is a complex process where several elements of the environment are involved. However, there are some difficulties associated with the study of drug delivery in vivo. Thus, there is a need to better replicate tumor microenvironment in simplified models. Here, a microfluidic device is developed to replicate the tumor microenvironment with the co-culture of human breast cancer cells and endothelial cells in a 3D context to elucidate the key mechanisms that determine drug delivery efficiency. The results showed that endothelial cell permeability increased when exposed to tumor cells or tumor cell-conditioned media. Furthermore, metastatic cells induced even higher permeability than non-metastatic ones, possibly through the impairment of endothelial cell-cell junctions. Overall, the researchers propose a new platform to study the different features of tumor microenvironment that affect drug delivery, which could be potentially used for drug screening or to elucidate transendothelial drug transport mechanisms.
A biomimetic microfluidic tumor microenvironment platform mimicking the EPR effect for rapid screening of drug delivery systems
Mohammad F Kiani
Added on: 10-21-2021
[1] https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-09815-9[2] https://data.jrc.ec.europa.eu/dataset/ffebe454-ed9a-47cf-8a33-8cf70c1b7d38
