(Press-News.org) CORVALLIS, Ore. – 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.
Editor's Note: A digital graphic of a nanotech particle is available online to illustrate this story: http://bit.ly/182k1Jk
The study this story is based on is available online: http://bit.ly/16hegtY
Research offers promising new approach to treatment of lung cancer
2013-05-22
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
Meeting the 'grand challenge' of a sustainable water supply
2013-05-22
Scientists and engineers must join together in a major new effort to educate the public and decision makers on a crisis in providing Earth's people with clean water that looms ahead in the 21st century. That's the focus of a comment article in the current edition of Chemical & Engineering News, the weekly newsmagazine of the American Chemical Society (ACS), the world's largest scientific society.
Bassam Z. Shakhashiri, Ph.D., David L. Sedlak, Ph.D., and Jerald L. Schnoor, Ph.D., explain that shortages of reliable supplies of fresh water will touch the lives people everywhere. ...
Making chaos visible
2013-05-22
This news release is available in German.
Exactly 50 years after the US-American meteorologist Edward Lorenz discovered chaos (remember the "butterfly effect"?) the topic is still as fascinating as ever. A new visualization technique developed at the University of Vienna helps to make chaos visible to the naked eye. The method, which is being published in "Royal Society Interface", allows for the intuitive interpretation of chaotic or nearly chaotic phenomena, and thus makes the fascinating world of chaos theory more accessible to the scientific community.
The ...
Parent and teacher support protects teens from sleep problems and depression
2013-05-22
DARIEN, IL – A new study suggests that disturbed sleep in adolescents is associated with more symptoms of depression and greater uncertainly about future success. However, perceived support and acceptance from parents and teachers appears to have a protective effect.
Results show that disturbed sleep was significantly associated with depressed mood and greater uncertainty about future success. Higher levels of perceived support from parents and from teachers were associated with significantly fewer sleep disruptions and subsequently with fewer symptoms of depression ...
Fish oil may help the heart beat mental stress
2013-05-22
Bethesda, Md. (May 22, 2013)—The omega 3 fatty acids in fish oil have long been thought to protect against cardiovascular disease—so much so that the American Heart Association currently recommends eating at least two servings of fish a week, particularly fatty varieties rich in omega 3s. However, the mechanism behind this protective effect still remains a mystery. In a new study, scientists led by Jason R. Carter of Michigan Technological University shed light on this phenomenon by providing evidence that fish oil might specifically counteract the detrimental effects of ...
Study shows that insomnia may cause dysfunction in emotional brain circuitry
2013-05-22
DARIEN, IL – A new study provides neurobiological evidence for dysfunction in the neural circuitry underlying emotion regulation in people with insomnia, which may have implications for the risk relationship between insomnia and depression.
"Insomnia has been consistently identified as a risk factor for depression," said lead author Peter Franzen, PhD, an assistant professor of psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. "Alterations in the brain circuitry underlying emotion regulation may be involved in the pathway for depression, and these results ...
Fast new, 1-step genetic engineering technology
2013-05-22
A new, streamlined approach to genetic engineering drastically reduces the time and effort needed to insert new genes into bacteria, the workhorses of biotechnology, scientists are reporting. Published in the journal ACS Synthetic Biology, the method paves the way for more rapid development of designer microbes for drug development, environmental cleanup and other activities.
Keith Shearwin and colleagues explain that placing, or integrating, a piece of the genetic material DNA into a bacterium's genome is critical for making designer bacteria. That DNA can give microbes ...
Reducing caloric intake delays nerve cell loss
2013-05-22
Washington, DC — Activating an enzyme known to play a role in the anti-aging benefits of calorie restriction delays the loss of brain cells and preserves cognitive function in mice, according to a study published in the May 22 issue of The Journal of Neuroscience. The findings could one day guide researchers to discover drug alternatives that slow the progress of age-associated impairments in the brain.
Previous studies have shown that reducing calorie consumption extends the lifespan of a variety of species and decreases the brain changes that often accompany ...
Race and gender influence diagnosis of COPD
2013-05-22
ATS 2013, PHILADELPHIA – African-Americans are less likely than whites and women are more likely than men to have had a prior diagnosis of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) regardless of their current disease severity, according to a new study.
"Race and gender are known to affect the diagnosis and treatment of a number of diseases," said lead author Albert Mamary, MD, Assistant Professor of Medicine at the Temple University School of Medicine in Philadelphia. "In our study of almost 9,000 patients enrolled in the COPDGene study, a cross sectional sample of ...
Low radiation scans help identify cancer in earliest stages
2013-05-22
ATS 2013, PHILADELPHIA ─ A study of veterans at high risk for developing lung cancer shows that low-dose computed tomography (LDCT) can be highly effective in helping clinicians spot tiny lung nodules which, in a small number of patients, may indicate the earliest stages of the disease. LDCT uses less than a quarter of the radiation of a conventional CT scan.
Results of the study will be presented at the ATS 2013 International Conference.
"Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related death and has a poor survival rate," said Sue Yoon, nurse practitioner ...
Data shows long-term benefit of TMS in patients with depression using NeuroStar TMS therapy system
2013-05-22
SAN FRANCISCO, May 21, 2013 – New data released today at the annual meeting of the American Psychiatric Association show that the NeuroStar TMS Therapy System® induced statistically and clinically meaningful response and remission in patients with Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) during the acute phase of therapy, which were maintained through one year of treatment. At the end of acute treatment, 62 percent of patients achieved symptomatic improvement while 41 percent reported complete remission. At 12 months, 68 percent of patients achieved symptomatic improvement while ...