Novel Drug Delivery Method Enhances Potential Treatment For Cancer

Jun, 2022 - By WMR

Researchers developed a new delivery method that uses a gel made of two ingredients providing a hospitable environments temporarily that activates altered immune cell to kill cancer tumors

A group of researchers at Stanford University with their new development made an addition to cancer immunotherapy. The team developed a new method of drug delivery that involves a new gel that acts as an injectable holding pen to killer immune cells. As per the research published in the journal ScienceAdvances on April 08, 2022, this new discovery could help to develop various treatments for tackling solid tumors and these cells can be used for sustained attacks on cancerous cells.

The team used a CAR-T cell therapy as a core of this study that involved gathering immune T-cells of the subject and exposing them to specific signaling proteins to reprogram them. However, when dealing with cancers that are widely spread, the CAR-T cells lacks efficiency. Thus, in search for solutions to such problems, the team developed a special gel that is created using only two components and is water and cellulose loaded up with CAR-T cells and the signaling proteins. Then, the team compared the gel with two ingredient to Velcro where the components strongly bind to each other, yet, also can be pulled apart easily. This new gel consists a strong mesh structure that can contain the T cells and when these cells replicate and prepare to kill the tumor they free themselves and attack the target. The team demonstrated this process in engineered mice with solid tumors as the team injected the gel adjacent to the tumor’s growth.

In results, the animals became cancer free after 12 days of the treatment without showing any harmful inflammatory reactions. According to the team, this new technique gave better results compared to parallel tests where a gel having only CAR-T cells was used to treat cancer that took longer than the new gel. However, this new gel requires more pre-clinical work to bring into normal use.