Researchers have discovered that the blood vessels that feed brain tumors contain special receptors that can be targeted with a new type of drug-delivering nanoparticles. These particles are able to cut off the energy supply for the tumor, stopping it from growing and spreading as well as causing other damage which could even lead to its destruction.
Scientists from the University of Nottingham and Duke University recently figured out that there are a lot of Low-Density Lipoprotein (LDL) receptors on the blood vessels that go to high-grade glioma brain tumors. This means doctors can use drugs they are already making at these two universities to target those receptors, which would help the drugs reach the tumors more easily.
This research was published in a science journal called Pharmaceutics.
Gliomas are a kind of tumor in the brain, and they are the most common types of cancer found there. They can range from slow-growing to very quickly spreading tumors. About half of all gliomas are high-grade gliomas (HGG), which means they often spread quickly and have a bad outlook – usually only 4.6 months without treatment and 14 months with treatments available today.
Researchers studied tissue from adults and children who had tumors and wanted to figure out if Low Density Lipoprotein Receptor (LDLR) could be a possible therapy. They tested it on three different models of cells, too, to make sure that LDLR-targeted nanoparticles – tiny particles – could get inside them and not cause harm. The researchers found that adults and children have LDLR in their bodies, but something interesting happened when they looked at grownups with High-Grade Gliomas – large tumours. In those cases, the tissues in the core versus the rim or outer part of the tumor acted differently.
Dr. Ruman Rahman, who is a professor at the University of Nottingham’s School of Medicine, led a research and said: “Treating brain tumors can be very challenging with the techniques that are already available because many drugs or tiny particles which work on cells don’t manage to pass through certain barriers that surround most tumors in our brains. So, it is important for us to look for better ways to help treat them. This study provides a huge stepping stone towards understanding how these tumor cells grow and spread. Now, we need to use special drugs and small particles to target these receptors which will stop the cancer cells from receiving energy they need to survive.”
David Needham is a Professor of both Translational Therapeutics and Mechanical Engineering from the University of Nottingham and Duke University. He’s taking on an interesting project. He wants to make a common medicine called niclosamide work better as a treatment for illnesses like cancer. This medicine makes it harder for cells to use energy, so they can’t function properly.
For more than 60 years, niclosamide has been used as an oral medicine to fight tapeworm infections because it interrupts their energy production. It also stops certain viruses from replicating and getting stronger. Scientists have recently redesigned niclosamide into a nasal spray or throat treatment for common respiratory viruses like COVID-19. To make this work, they had to figure out how to dissolve the medicine so that it can be used in other treatments such as intravenous (IV) injections.
Professor Needham has been researching this drug for a while now to see if it could be used to treat cancers. He said that the drug works kind of like a dimmer switch, since it can turn down cells in our bodies like those found in your nose so they can fight against infections like COVID19. However, cancer cells act differently, as they have special strategies that make them different from normal cells – niclosamide targets energy production and also starts a process called Apoptosis, which is when the cell kills itself.
Scientists have recently discovered that brain tumors have special receptors which allow them to absorb food and spread throughout the body. Our plan is to modify a drug, so it looks like the ‘food’ of the cancer cells; this will help cut off the energy supply they need to grow and spread. Essentially, what we’re doing is making sure that cancer cells don’t get the nutrition they need to continue growing.
Researchers at Duke University headed by Professor Needham have come up with a way of transforming a special type of drug (nicknamed “brick dust”) that doesn’t dissolve easily in water into little rocks. These special rocks are called “niclosamide stearate”, and they can be used to make tiny particles for injections or to be implanted in various places on the body.
Studies have shown that a special medicine called NSPT can reduce the lung tumors in mice with Osteosarcoma, and also successfully cure some dogs from an experiment.
Professor Needham is excited that this special technology can now be used to treat other types of cancer. He and his colleagues at the Children’s Brain Tumour Research Centre have begun tests to see if it can work with brain tumors. If everything works as they hope, they will quickly try it on patients in a safe way. They want to explore how the anti-cancer medicine and its prodrug can help fight brain cancer when injected into the body or placed directly after surgery.
Researchers from the School of Pharmacy have created a special kind of nanoparticle which can target LDLR and make it easier for tumor cells to get taken up. Jonathan Burley and his Ph.D. student George Bebawy proved that these particles work well.
Professor Needham needs help from people in the industry, government, and infectious disease institutes. He wants to hear from anyone who can help make this new technology get tested and developed further.
This article, published on 10th February 2023 in the journal of Pharmaceutics talks about a new nano drug delivery system for people with cervical cancer and research progress made on insulin like growth factor binding protein-3 which is related to glioma. It also covers the progress and potential arguments in treatment of optic nerve gliomas.
This passage discusses how the clinical trial of cancer drugs has developed in 2020, focusing on T-DM1 for breast cancer. It also looks into the effect a drug’s solubility has on its delivery, as well as new therapies that have been created from Human coronaviruses. Additionally, it speaks about Bedaquiline-containing regimens and their role in treating pulmonary multidrug-resistant tuberculosis in China; finally, potential marine natural products to use against malaria and other parasitic diseases are discussed.
This study looks at the effects of a special care system for people with drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB) on the quality of medical services in China and how it affects funding for treatment. Researchers used both research methods to figure this out.
