微热可促进肿瘤细胞吸收靶向抗癌药

  近日，来自曼彻斯特大学的研究人员通过研究揭示，对靶向纳米药物颗粒进行微热或可有效将其运输至肿瘤细胞中，从而有效杀灭癌细胞改善患者的生存率；脂质体是研究人员建立的可有效运输癌症化疗药物的方法，其是将药物包裹入纳米尺寸的容器中（脂质体）从而使得药物可以更有效地运输并且在癌症组织中集中，同时通过限制健康细胞摄入药物融合的脂质体来降低机体的副作用。
  这些脂质体的有效性或可以通过对其进行工程化操作使其表面包含诸如单克隆抗体类的分子来进行改善，这就可以使得改造后的携带药物的脂质体更好地靶向作用癌细胞，同时使得脂质体具有温度敏感性的特性，以便当对其进行轻微加热时就可以促进其释放靶向杀灭癌细胞的药物。
  研究者Kostas Kostarelos教授说道，文章中我们观察了携带药物的脂质体对癌细胞的作用效率，同时也分析了该脂质体对温度诱发药物的释放效率；此前研究中我们希望在培养皿中观察到这种新型结合方法（纳米药物颗粒脂质体）的作用效果，但是当时并没有在活体组织中检测其抗癌的潜力。
  本文研究中研究者对比了采用微热和不采用微热两种过程，对脂质体靶向作用癌细胞的能力的差别，他们发现，相比不进行微热操作，在微热的作用下，活性靶向脂质体可以更好地被小鼠的肿瘤细胞摄入，从而明显改善小鼠的存活率。
  最后研究者Kostarelos说道，本文研究中我们成功开发了热激活和靶向抗体的脂质体，并且揭示了其化学和结构上的稳定性，这种利用微热的方法可以帮助我们开发新型的机械性策略来改善药物的运输，并且有效释放到肿瘤组织中，进而杀灭癌细胞，延长患者的存活时间。（转化医学网360zhyx.com）
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Liposomes, One of the clinically-established methods for the delivery of cancer chemotherapy drugs has been to package the drug inside nano-sized containers, known as liposomes. This allows the drug to more effectively localise into cancer tissue and reduces side-effects by limiting drug-infused liposome uptake in healthy cells.

The effectiveness of these liposomes has been further improved by engineering them to contain molecules (monoclonal antibodies) on their surface that allow them to better target cancer cells in combination to making them temperature-sensitive so that they release their therapeutic drug content upon mild heating.

Researchers from the Nanomedicine Laboratory at The University of Manchester – part of the Manchester Cancer Research Centre – looked at the benefits of combining both active targeting and temperature-triggered release.

Professor Kostas Kostarelos, who led the research, said: “We have previously seen promising results from this combination approach on a petri dish, but no study had yet investigated its potential in living tissue.”

The team compared liposomes with and without the ability to actively target cancer cells. They found that in combination with mild heating, the actively targeted liposomes showed greater uptake in tumour tissue in mice than those without targeting ability.

This resulted in a moderate improvement in the animals’ survival.

“We have successfully developed heat-activated and antibody-targeted liposomes to show that they are chemically and structurally stable. This approach may help us develop novel mechanistic strategies to improve targeted drug delivery and release within tumour tissue, while better sparing normal cells,” added Professor Kostarelos.