New nano-scale drug delivery system for chemotherapy.Byline: ANI London, Nov 2 (ANI): A research team led by Indian-origin scientist has developed a nano-scale drug delivery method that has been found to effectively eliminate cancer tumours after a single treatment. The Duke University study conducted over animal models revealed that after delivering the drug to the tumour, the delivery vehicle breaks down into harmless byproducts, markedly decreasing the toxicity for the recipient. "When used to deliver anti-cancer medications in our models, the new formulation has a four-fold higher maximum tolerated dose than the same drug by itself, and it induced nearly complete tumor regression after one injection," Nature quoted Ashutosh Chilkoti, Theo Pilkington Professor of Biomedical Engineering Biomedical engineering An interdisciplinary field in which the principles, laws, and techniques of engineering, physics, chemistry, and other physical sciences are applied to facilitate progress in medicine, biology, and other life sciences. at Duke's Pratt School of Engineering as saying. "The free drug had only a modest effect in shrinking tumours or in prolonging animal survival," he added. The researchers revealed that the delivery system makes use of the bacterium Escherichia coli Escherichia coli (ĕsh'ərĭk`ēə kō`lī), common bacterium that normally inhabits the intestinal tracts of humans and animals, but can cause infection in other parts of the body, especially the urinary tract. (E. coli), which has been genetically altered to produce a specific artificial polypeptide polypeptide: see peptide. known as a chimeric chi·mer·ic adj. 1. Relating to a chimera. 2. Composed of parts of different origin. polypeptide. When attached to one of these chimeric polypeptides, the drug takes on characteristics that the drug alone does not possess. Most drugs do not dissolve in water, which limits their ability to be taken in by cells. But being attached to a nanoparticle makes the drug soluble. During the study, researchers used doxorubicin doxorubicin /doxo·ru·bi·cin/ (dok?so-roo´bi-sin) an antineoplastic antibiotic, produced by Streptomyces peucetius, which binds to DNA and inhibits nucleic acid synthesis; used as the hydrochloride salt and as a liposome-encased , a commonly used agent for the treatment of cancers of the blood, breast, ovaries Ovaries The female sex organs that make eggs and female hormones. Mentioned in: Choriocarcinoma ovaries (ō´v nd other organs They injected mice with tumours implanted under their skin with either the chimeric polypeptide-doxorubicin combination or doxorubicin alone. The study showed that mice treated with doxorubicin alone had an average tumour size 25 times greater than those treated with the new combination. The average survival time for the doxorubicin-treated mice was 27 days, compared to more than 66 days for mice getting the new formulation. The study appears in journal Nature Materials. (ANI) Copyright 2009 Asian News International The Asian News International (ANI) agency provides multimedia news to China and 50 bureaus in India. It covers virtually all of South Asia since its foundation and presently claims, on its official website, to be the leading South Asia-wide news agency. (ANI) - All Rights Reserved. Provided by Syndigate.info an Albawaba.com company |
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