New Delivery System To Attack Tumors

There are plenty of anticancer agents out there today, but the problem is that they can not reach all of the cells inside a solid tumor. A team led by LMU pharmacologist Dr Manfred Ogris may have an answer to this problem. This team developed a new type of gene delivery vehicle designed to open up a route through the vascular network that supplies the tumor so that drugs can reach their target. In specifc this vehicle is desgined to deliver the gene for TNFα directly and specifically to the tumor cells.

"Large tumors need a local blood supply for continued growth, and are capable of inducing the formation of new vessels. The resulting vasculature is more permeable than normal vessels, which should facilitate the delivery of cytotoxins. However, the lymphatic system does not work optimally in tumors, and back-pressure associated with the build-up of lymph limits the diffusion of drugs. As it happens, the cytokine Tumor Necrosis Factor α (TNFα), which can kill tumor cells directly, is able to increase blood vessel permeability as part of its pro-inflammatory function." -Medical News Today. The idea of this new delivery vehicle is to use gene therapy to deliver TNFa directly into the tumor. This would then ensure that the blood vessels in the immediate area of the tumor were permeable. Once the blood vessels become permeable the anticancer drugs would be able to reach all the cells and attack the tumor.



To prove that this gene delivery vehicle could work the LMU team tested it on cell cultures. They first created a form of the TNFa gene that would not create non-specific immflamation, unlike the normal version of the gene. Then the plasmid was incorporated into nanoparticles, which protect the DNA throughout its journey and also make sure it is targeted to the tumor. Once the plasmid was inserted into the cells there were large amounts of TNFa synthesized by the cell cultures, which confirmed that the delivery vehicle was a success. "We now plan to optimize our gene delivery system, and hope that we can soon begin to plan preclinical tests of the new approach." said Ogris.

This new research is very imformative and exciting. The LMU team has created something that could save many lives and can change how cancer is treated. I think this new technique can greatly impact the effectiveness of anticancer drugs and hopefully we will see this being used in clincal test in the very near future.