National Health Research Institutes (NHRI) researchers have developed red blood cell-derived vesicles (RDVs) that can be used as nanocarriers to deliver nanoparticle drugs into other cells, improving cancer treatment, the research organization said yesterday.
Cells have been used for decades to deliver a number of drugs to organs, but using cells to deliver nanodrugs into other cells had been an unattainable cancer treatment goal until the NHRI team developed a novel nanocarrier composed of RDVs, NHRI Institute of Biomedical Engineering and Nanomedicine associate investigator Huang Dong-ming (黃東明) said.
Nanoparticles are made from biocompatible and biodegradable materials that can be natural, synthetic or solid lipids, but as most nanocarriers are manufactured by artificial materials, there are concerns about potential toxicity, said Huang, the projects’ lead researcher.
Photo: Lin Hui-chin, Taipei Times
As RDVs are generated organically from within the body, they are more stable and have better biocompatibility, allowing a drug to remain in the body’s circulatory system longer and prolonging the drug’s action due to its gradual release from the carrier, making them a more effective nanoparticle drug delivery system, Huang said.
In animal studies, the team used RDVs as nanocarriers for delivering ultrasmall magnetic iron oxide nanoparticles to the stem cells of mice, Huang said, adding that magnetic resonance imaging showed that the process went well and had a good biosafety profile.
In different study, the team developed a nanocarrier composed of RDVs, surface linked with doxorubicin — a chemotherapy medication that treats cancer — in a compound called Dox-gluRDVs, and found that it performed a highly effective anticancer activity that reduced the subcutaneous melanoma tumor cells in mice, with reduced adverse side effects compared with other treatments, Huang said.
Preliminary results from other studies suggest that using RDVs as nanocarriers can also improve cancer therapies for multidrug-resistant cancers, metastatic cancer and pancreatic cancer, Huang said.
The team is conducting animal experiments to improve the treatment of brain cancers, hopes to begin clinical trials of the RDV drug delivery system in the next two or three years, he added.
RDVs for cancer therapy can be developed within a few hours of drawing blood from a patient, Huang said, adding that they can also be produced from donated blood if a patient is too weak or their condition is unstable.
The NHRI said Huang has obtained patents for using RDVs as a nanoparticle drug delivery system in Taiwan and the US, and has received the National Innovation Award and the National Innovation Renewal Award.
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