BreakThrough Digest Medical News |
| Research offers promising new approach to treatment of lung cancer Posted: 21 May 2013 09:00 PM PDT Researchers have developed a new drug delivery system that allows inhalation of chemotherapeutic drugs to help treat lung cancer, and in laboratory and animal tests it appears to reduce the systemic damage done to other organs while significantly improving the treatment of lung tumors.
This advance in nanomedicine combines the extraordinarily small size of nanoparticles, existing cancer drugs, and small interfering RNA (siRNA) that shut down the ability of cancer cells to resist attack. The combination of these forces resulted in the virtual disappearance of lung tumors in experimental animals. Lung cancer is the leading cancer killer in both men and women. Despite advances in surgery, chemotherapy still plays a major role in its treatment. However, that treatment is constrained by the toxic effects of some drugs needed to combat it and the difficulty of actually getting those drugs into the lungs. The findings were made by Oleh Taratula at Oregon State University and Tamara Minko and O. Garbuzenko at Rutgers University and the Cancer Institute of New Jersey. They were just published in the Journal of Controlled Release. “Lung cancer damage is usually not localized, which makes chemotherapy an important part of treatment,” said Taratula, an assistant professor in the OSU College of Pharmacy and co-author on this study. “However, the drugs used are toxic and can cause organ damage and severe side effects if given conventionally through intravenous administration. “A drug delivery system that can be inhaled is a much more efficient approach, targeting just the cancer cells as much as possible,” he said. “Other chemotherapeutic approaches only tend to suppress tumors, but this system appears to eliminate it.” A patent is being applied for on the technology, and more testing will be necessary before it is ready for human clinical trials, the researchers said. The foundation of the new system is a “nanostructured lipid nanocarrier,” tiny particles much smaller than a speck of dust that are easily inhaled and also readily attach to cancer cells. This carrier system delivers the anticancer drug. However, it also brings siRNA that makes the cancer cell more vulnerable. Cancer cells often have two forms of resistance to drugs ? “pump” resistance that tends to pump the drug out of cells, and “nonpump” resistance that helps keep the cell from dying. The siRNA used in this system helps to eliminate both those forms of resistance, and leaves the cancer cell vulnerable to the drug being used to kill it. By being inhaled, this system also avoids degradation of the chemotherapeutic agents that occurs when they are injected, researchers said. They arrive in more intact form, ready to do their job on lung cancer cells, while minimizing any side effects. In more conventional chemotherapy for lung cancer, the drugs tend to accumulate in the liver, kidney and spleen, with much less of the drugs ever making it to the lungs. In this study, the amount of the drug delivered to the lungs rose to 83 percent with the inhalation approach, versus 23 percent with injection. ### This work was supported by the National Cancer Institute, National Science Foundation, and the Department of Defense. Contact: Oleh Taratula |
| Acne treatment: Natural substance-based formula is more effective than artificial compounds Posted: 21 May 2013 09:00 PM PDT University of Granada scientists have patented a new treatment for acne that is based on completely natural substances and is much more effective than artificial formulas because it does not create resistance to bacteria and has no secondary effects.
The formula, developed in the Department of Microbiology, is applied directly on the skin. The principle ingredient is a circular, 70 amino acid protein known as AS-48, produced by Enterococcus bacteria and with no proven haemolytic or toxic activity. As University of Granada Professor and project lead researcher Mercedes Maqueda-Abreu explains, “the human skin is the first physical barrier protecting our bodies from the exterior, but it also has to be considered as a biological barrier housing beneficial microorganisms, the microbiota of the skin, populated by bacteria and different fungus species that stop pathogens from developing.” Altering the natural equilibrium of these microorganisms leads to infections that are sometimes difficult to treat?like acne (acne vulgaris), “a very common skin infection, principally in puberty, that causes aesthetic and health problems and damages self-esteem,” or other very common skin infections produced by Staphylococcus aureus or Streptococcus pyogenes. Ineffective treatments
The Propionibacterium acnes bacteria is responsible for this infection when it develops, out of control, in areas abundant in sebaceous secretions. Current treatments are not always effective because resistance develops or undesirable side effects occur. Skin infections caused by S. aureus and S. pyogenes are increasingly demonstrating antibiotic multiresistance. They lead to serious pathologies but, to some extent, are susceptible to topical antibacterial treatment too. The new formula developed at the University of Granada?and patented through the Office for the Transfer of Research Results (Otri)”draws on natural substances with antibacterial activity, so they can be used as cosmetic and/or pharmaceutical ingredients in the treatment and prophylaxis of these infections,” affirms Prof. Maqueda-Abreu. The AS-48 protein, on which the patented formula is based, has a broad spectrum of action against Gram-positive bacteria. These include important pathogens such as different species of staphylococcus, streptococcus, clostridia, micobacteriaceae and listeria, among others. Potentially, it could have many applications in human and animal clinical care and as a biopreservative in foods. “In vitro, topical use of AS-48 alone, or together with agents that enhance its activity, has proved highly efficient in controlling the microorganisms responsible for the skin infections we’re talking about”, says Prof. Maqueda-Abreu. The formula patented at the University of Granada, which does not lose activity when stored at different temperatures or on account of interactions between the active molecules and cosmetic compounds has, moreover, a further added advantage: as AS-48 targets the bacteria cell membrane, pathogen resistance is highly unlikely to develop. ### Corresponding author: Mercedes Maqueda Abreu mmaqueda@ugr.es |
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