Study reveals how innovative chemotherapy approach works against lung cancer, ET HealthWorld | Top Vip News

Arlington: Lung cancer is not the most common type of cancer, but it is the deadliest. Despite therapies such as surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy, only about a quarter of all people with the disease will live more than five years after diagnosis, and the World Health Organization estimates that lung cancer kills to more than 1.8 million people around the world each year. Researchers at the University of Texas at Arlington and UT Southwestern Medical Center have pioneered a revolutionary way to deliver anti-cancer drugs directly into cancer cells, improving the odds for lung cancer patients.

“Our method uses the patient’s own cellular material as a Trojan horse to carry a targeted drug payload directly to lung cancer cells,” said Kytai T. Nguyen, lead author of a new study on the technique in Bioactive. Materials and Alfred R. and Janet H. Potvin Distinguished Professor of Bioengineering at UTA. “The process involves isolating T cells (a type of immune cell) from the cancer patient and modifying them to express a specific receptor that targets cancer cells.”

The crucial step in this new technique involves isolating the cell membrane of these modified T cells, loading the membranes with chemotherapy drugs, and then coating them on small drug delivery beads. These nanoparticles are approximately 1/100 the size of a strand of hair.

When these membrane-coated nanoparticles are injected back into the patient, the cell membrane acts as a guide, directing the nanoparticles to the tumor cells precisely. This approach is designed to trick the patient’s immune system, as the coated nanoparticles mimic the properties of immune cells, avoiding detection and elimination by the body.

“The key advantage of this method lies in its highly specific nature, which allows it to overcome the limitations of conventional chemotherapy that often lead to harmful side effects and reduced quality of life for patients,” said co-author Jon Weidanz. , associate vice president. of research and innovation and researcher in kinesiology and bioengineering.“By delivering chemotherapy directly to tumor cells, the system aims to minimize collateral damage to healthy tissues,” continued Weidanz, who is also a member of UTA’s Multi-Interprofessional Center for Health Informatics.

In the study, the researchers loaded the nanoparticles with the anti-cancer drug cisplatin. The membrane-coated nanoparticles accumulated in parts of the body with tumors rather than in other parts of the body. As a result, this targeted delivery system was able to reduce the size of tumors in the control group, demonstrating its effectiveness.

“This personalized approach could pave the way for a new era of medicine tailored to each patient’s unique characteristics and the specific nature of their tumor,” Nguyen said. “The possibility of reducing side effects and improving efficacy makes our technique a notable advance in the field of cancer treatment.”