Advanced ovarian cancer is very difficult to treat, and can be resistant to common platinum-based anticancer drugs. New drugs that are both efficient against this type of cancer and have a limited toxicity are, thus, needed.
Michael J. Birrer, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, both Boston, MA, USA, P. Peter Ghoroghchian, Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, Cambridge, MA, Dana Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School, both Boston, MA, USA, and colleagues have developed nanoparticle conjugates of a highly potent anticancer drug that could be used for treating ovarian cancer. The team used a triblock copolymer to create biodegradable nanoparticles and covalently bound the drug monomethyl auristatin E (MMAE) to the particles’ surface.
The researchers injected the nanoparticle conjugates into the abdomen of mice carrying xenografts of ovarian cancer. They found that the nanoparticles accumulate in the tumors and release MMAE, which inhibits tumor growth while preventing toxicity to healthy tissue. The conjugates also showed improved activity against resistant tumors compared to platinum-based drugs.
- Nanoparticle conjugates of a highly potent toxin enhance safety and circumvent platinum resistance in ovarian cancer,
Ruogu Qi, Yongheng Wang, Peter M. Bruno, Haihua Xiao, Yu Yingjie, Ting Li, Sam Lauffer, Wei Wei, Qixian Chen, Xiang Kang, Haiqin Song, Xi Yang, Xing Huang, Alexandre Detappe, Ursula Matulonis, David Pepin, Michael T. Hemann, Michael J. Birrer, P. Peter Ghoroghchian,
Nat. Commun. 2017.
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-017-02390-7
