Targeted nanoparticles to treat prostate cancer
A team of scientists from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Harvard Center for Nanotechnology Excellence, led by Lippard, Langer and Farokhzad, Ph.D.’s, have designed a nanoparticle that is able to deliver anticancer drug cisplatin to prostate cancer cells.
The nanoparticle is made out of two polymers and a nucleic acid aptamer which binds to the tumor marker antigen, which is specific for prostate. The aptamer is responsible for making the drug transferable directly and only to prostate cancer cells.
It isn’t easy to create a stable nanoparticle which is able to release it’s toxic cargo inside tumor cells. In this case, researchers used a modified version of cisplatin that contains a long hydrocarbon chain. As the nanoparticle forms, the hydrocarbon chain associates strongly with the hydrophobic chains of the polymer that forms the nanoparticle’s core. The researchers note that the hydrocarbon chain they chose optimizes both drug encapsulation and drug release inside tumor cells. Once the nanoparticle enters the cell, the modified drug is converted into its active form as a result of chemical conditions inside the cell.
Tests with human cells grown in culture showed that the nanoparticles were absorbed by the cancer cells, and not by the healthy cells.
The paper was published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.
Source: nano.cancer.gov/news_center/2008/nov/nanotech_news_2008-11-20b.asp
