A New Treatment Destroys Tumors in Three Types of Cancer
One of the most challenging aspects of
cancer treatment for patients is dealing with the many unpleasant side
effects of chemotherapy. Most chemotherapy drugs kill both cancerous and
healthy cells which can often lead to a variety of undesirable effects.
A new drug delivery system, however, promises to deliver the chemo drug
straight into tumors with fewer side effects. The drug delivery system,
dubbed the “Trojan Horse”, was revealed in a recent study published in
the Journal of the American Chemical Society. It has been named so
because of its potential ability to disguise chemotherapeutic drugs as
fat.
The research was done by a team of
scientists at Northwestern University in the United States.
“It’s like a Trojan horse,” says Northwestern University’s Nathan
Gianneschi, who led the research. “It
looks like a nice little fatty
acid, so the tumor’s receptors see it and invite it in. Then the drug
starts getting metabolized and kills the tumor cells.”
How will this new treatment work exactly?
To develop the targeting system, the scientists developed a fatty acid
with two binding sites with each having the capability of attaching to
chemotherapeutic drugs. The fatty acid and its hitchhiking drugs are
then hidden within the human serum albumin (HSA), which carries
molecules throughout the body, and tricks the tumor into allowing the
drug inside the cancer cells. This “trick”, according to the scientists,
will be made possible as the body’s cellular receptors identify the
fats and proteins delivered by the HSA and will hence let them in.
The hungry cancer cells consume the
nutrients much faster than normal cells. Once the cancer cells
metabolize the hidden drug, it activates and kills them.
“It’s like the fatty acid has a hand on both ends: one can grab onto the
drug and one can grab onto proteins,” Gianneschi said. “The idea is to
disguise drugs as fats so that they get into cells and the body is happy
to transport them around.”
The researchers used the drug delivery system to carry paclitaxel, a
common, FDA-approved chemotherapy drug, into tumors in a small animal
model. The drug, disguised as fat, entered the tumors and “completely
destroyed” three types of cancer: bone, pancreatic, and colon.
Furthermore, the team found that they could
deliver 20 times the typical dose of paclitaxel with their system, in
comparison to two other paclitaxel-based drugs. Despite the high dose,
however, the drug system developed by the Northwestern University
scientists was 17 times safer.
The new treatment could bring much relief to cancer patients
As we mentioned above, common anticancer
drugs generally have horrible side effects. This new “Trojan Horse”
chemotherapy drug delivery system could be a boon in that regard to
cancer patients as it promises to reduce the adverse reactions of cancer
patients.
“Our goal is to increase the amount that gets into a tumor versus into
other cells and tissues. That allows us to dose at much higher
quantities without side effects, which kills the tumors faster,’
Gianneschi says.
The newly developed system has still a long
way to go before it can be officially approved for use. However, the
method, despite being in its early stages, does look promising. Right
now, we don't know for sure when this treatment will pursue clinical
trials but it does offer hope for a better form of cancer treatment in
the future.