Cancer-Fighting Nanoparticles - Innovative Chemoimmunotherapy
The discovery of researchers at the University of Pittsburgh - a new therapeutic target and the development of an effective nanocarrier for the selective delivery of immunotherapy and chemotherapy drugs. Cancer-fighting nanoparticles simultaneously deliver chemotherapy and a novel immunotherapy.
“There are two innovative aspects of our study: the discovery of a new therapeutic target and a new nanocarrier that is very effective in selective delivery of immunotherapy and chemotherapeutic drugs,” said senior author Song Li, M.D., Ph.D., professor of pharmaceutical sciences in the Pitt School of Pharmacy and UPMC Hillman Cancer Center investigator.
What is about in this immunotherapy?
This new therapy, when combined with chemotherapy and packaged into nanoparticles, has been shown to be effective in shrinking tumors in mouse models of colon and pancreatic cancer.
“I’m excited about this research because it’s highly translational. We don’t know yet whether our approach works in patients, but our findings suggest that there is a lot of potential,” said Song Li.
The analysis showed that about 10% of the nanoparticles made their way to their tumor when injected into mice, an improvement over previous analysis of published research where the average was only 0.7%.
Results of study
Li mentions how the study also pointed to the potential of combining the FuOXP-siRNA nanoparticles with another type of immunotherapy called checkpoint inhibitors.
Resrearchers determined that PD-1 immune checkpoints are acting like breaks on the immune system where checkpoint inhibitors work to release the brakes and help immune cells to fight cancer.
To translate their novel therapy to the clinic, team of researchers are now looking to validate their findings with additional experiments. Also, they are further evaluate potential side effects.