Nanoparticles protect a potent anticancer drug, allow it to be taken orally
July 1, 2008 | Source: KurzweilAI
Children’s Hospital Boston researchers have used protective nanoparticles to turn a potent anticancer medicine, TNP-470, into a nontoxic drug that can be taken orally.
Lodamin nanoparticle
The original TNP-470 opened up anti-angiogenesis (angiogenesis is the formation of new blood vessels) as a new way to treat cancer, but had neurotoxic side effects and a short half-life in the body.
The new researchers created a new “Lodamin” formulation by surrounding the TNP-470 molecule with nanoparticles known as polymeric micelles. The micelles protect the molecule in the stomach, allowing it to reach and accumulate inside the tumor.
Now that it can be taken orally, Lodamin could be used as a preventative therapy for high-risk patients or as a chronic maintenance therapy (to prevent metastasis) for a variety of cancers. It could also be used for other diseases that involve aberrant blood-vessel growth, such as age-related macular degeneration and arthritis, according to researchers.