When It Comes to Drug Delivery, Size Matters
November 20, 2009(PhysOrg.com) -- One of the great promises of nanotechnologies lies in its ability to create drug-containing nanoparticles decorated with targeting molecules that recognize and bind to cancer cells, providing drug delivery only at the site of the targeted cells. Such site-specific drug delivery would not only boost the cancer-killing activity of a drug payload but also reduce potential side effects by greatly restricting or even eliminating the amount of drug reaching healthy tissue.
It turns out, though, that not all targeting agent-nanoparticle combinations are able to reach and enter their targets with equal effectiveness. To help bring some rationality to the process of designing targeted drug delivery agents, K. Dane Wittrup, Ph.D., and graduate student Micheal Schmidt of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have developed a mathematical model that predicts the magnitude and specificity of tumor uptake of drug delivery vehicles ranging in size from small peptides to large liposomes. This work was published in the journal Molecular Cancer Therapeutics.
The model developed by the Schmidt and Wittrup, who is a member of the MIT-Harvard Center of Cancer Nanotechnology Excellence, accounts for the size of a particular drug delivery agent and a variety of easily measured properties, including how readily it crosses biological barriers and how tightly it binds to a target in test tube experiments. The researchers note that despite the simplicity of their model, it accurately predicts the behavior of HER2-targeted constructs in a mouse model of cancer and of CEA-targeted constructs in humans. In fact, it appears that size and target affinity account for most of the variability in tumor uptake.
One interesting prediction that the model makes is that large constructs, such as nanoparticles, and small ones, including targeting peptides, will deliver more drug into a tumor than will medium constructs, such as engineered antibody fragments. However, the model also predicts that delivery to tumors by nanoparticles over 50 nanometers in diameter will not improve much when targeting agents are aded to the nanoparticles.
This work, which is detailed in a paper titled, "A modeling analysis of the effects of molecular size and binding affinity on tumor targeting," was supported by the NCI Alliance for Nanotechnology in Cancer, a comprehensive initiative designed to accelerate the application of nanotechnology to the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of cancer. An abstract of this paper is available at the journal's Web site.
-
New Cancer Drug Delivery System Is Effective and Reversible
Aug 31, 2009 |
not rated yet |
0
-
New Nanoparticles for Targeting Tumors
Mar 27, 2008 |
not rated yet |
0
-
Carbon Nanotubes Have Room for Multifunctionality
Sep 27, 2007 |
not rated yet |
0
-
Targeted Nanoparticles Boost Arsenic’s Anticancer Punch
Jul 22, 2009 |
not rated yet |
0
-
Nanoparticles Image Breast Cancer
Jul 21, 2009 |
not rated yet |
0
-
Engineers build first sub-10-nm carbon nanotube transistor
Feb 01, 2012 |
4.9 / 5 (30) |
30
-
Something old, something new: Evolution and the structural divergence of duplicate genes
Jan 31, 2012 |
4.6 / 5 (7) |
1
-
The hidden nanoworld of ice crystals: Revealing the dynamic behavior of quasi-liquid layers
Jan 30, 2012 |
5 / 5 (3) |
1
-
Stock market network reveals investor clustering
Jan 27, 2012 |
3.9 / 5 (23) |
8
-
Of microchemistry and molecules: Electronic microfluidic device synthesizes biocompatible probes
Jan 26, 2012 |
5 / 5 (1) |
0
-
Squishing cells
1 hour ago
-
Any books/articles for evolutionary stable strategy models in humans?
12 hours ago
-
Science behind the bore feeling?
19 hours ago
-
Homo Sapien vs. Chimpanzee - Divergence Timeline
23 hours ago
-
a single mRNA strand is attached to sevaral ribosomes?
Feb 08, 2012
-
Oestrogen and FSH
Feb 07, 2012
- More from Physics Forums - Biology
More news stories
'Dark plasmons' transmit energy
Microscopic channels of gold nanoparticles have the ability to transmit electromagnetic energy that starts as light and propagates via "dark plasmons," according to researchers at Rice University.
7 hours ago |
5 / 5 (4) |
0
|
Nanotube therapy takes aim at breast cancer stem cells
Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center researchers have again proven that injecting multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) into tumors and heating them with a quick, 30-second laser treatment can kill them.
Nanotechnology / Bio & Medicine
12 hours ago |
5 / 5 (1) |
0
|
Inspired by steel, nanomanufacturing gets wear-resistant carbide tip
(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists at the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Wisconsin-Madison and IBM Research - Zurich have fabricated an ultrasharp silicon carbide tip possessing such high strength ...
17 hours ago |
5 / 5 (3) |
1
|
New technology platform for molecule-based electronics
Researchers at the Nano-Science Center at the University of Copenhagen have developed a new nano-technology platform for the development of molecule-based electronic components using the wonder material graphene. At the same ...
Nanotechnology / Nanomaterials
14 hours ago |
5 / 5 (2) |
0
Australians risking skin cancer to avoid nanoparticles
More than three in five Australians are concerned enough about the health implications of nanoparticles in sunscreens to want to know more about their impact. And while the initial scientific information released suggests ...
Nanotechnology / Bio & Medicine
15 hours ago |
5 / 5 (1) |
0
FDA-approved drug rapidly clears amyloid from the brain, reverses Alzheimer's symptoms in mice
Neuroscientists at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine have made a dramatic breakthrough in their efforts to find a cure for Alzheimer's disease. The researchers' findings, published in the journal Science, show t ...
Hydrogen from acidic water: Researchers develop potential low cost alternative to platinum for splitting water
A technique for creating a new molecule that structurally and chemically replicates the active part of the widely used industrial catalyst molybdenite has been developed by researchers with the Lawrence Berkeley ...
Ultraviolet protection molecule in plants yields its secrets
Lying around in the sun all day is hazardous not just for humans but also for plants, which have no means of escape. Ultraviolet (UV) radiation from the sun can damage proteins and DNA inside cells, leading ...
Anyone can learn to be more inventive, cognitive researcher says
There will always be a wild and unpredictable quality to creativity and invention, says Anthony McCaffrey, a cognitive psychology researcher at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, because an "Aha moment" is rare and ...
New method makes culture of complex tissue possible in any lab
Scientists at the University of California, San Diego have developed a new method for making scaffolds for culturing tissue in three-dimensional arrangements that mimic those in the body. This advance, published online in ...
Cell biologists describes mechanism by which some people may be more susceptible to colon cancer
An international research team led by cell biologists at the University of California, Riverside has uncovered a new insight into colon cancer, the third leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the United ...