Researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), US, have drug-carrying nanoparticles that appear to get into the brain more efficiently than drugs given on their own.Tested using a new brain tissue model, researchers have developed nanoparticles which may be able to deliver chemotherapy drugs for glioblastoma.

Figure 1: Drug-carrying nanoparticles that appear to get into the brain more efficiently.

Figure 1 shows thatthe researchers pioneered a technique called layer-by-layer assembly, which they can use to create surface-functionalized nanoparticles that carry drugs in their core. The particles that the researchers developed for this study are coated with a peptide called AP2, which has been shown in previous work to help nanoparticles get through the blood brain barrier. [1]

The brain is such a vital organ, the blood vessels surrounding the brain are much more restrictive than other blood vessels in the body to keep out potentially harmful molecules.When the researchers delivered these nanoparticles to tissue models of both glioblastoma and healthy brain tissue, they found that the particles coated with the AP2 peptide were much better at penetrating the vessels surrounding the tumors.

They also showed that the transport occurred due to binding a receptor called LRP1, which is more abundant near tumors than in normal brain vessels.The researchers then filled the particles with cisplatin, a commonly used chemotherapy drug. When these particles were coated with the targeting peptide, they were able to effectively kill glioblastoma tumor cells in the tissue model.

“We saw increased cell death in tumors that were treated with the peptide-coated nanoparticle compared to the bare nanoparticles or free drug. Those coated particles showed more specificity of killing the tumor, versus killing everything in a nonspecific way,” Hajal says.[2]

The researchers then tried delivering the nanoparticles to mice, using a specialized surgical microscope to track the nanoparticles moving through the brain. They found that the particles’ ability to cross the blood-brain barrier was very similar to what they had seen in their human tissue model.

They also showed that coated nanoparticles carrying cisplatin could slow down tumor growth in mice, but the effect wasn’t as strong as what they saw in the tissue model. This might be because the tumors were in a more advanced stage, the researchers say.

“This is a model that we could use to design more effective nanoparticles,we’ve only tested one type of brain tumor,” Straehla says.

References:

1. https://www.drugtargetreview.com/news/103371/scientists-develop-nanoparticles-that-can-cross-the-blood-brain-barrier/
2. https://sciencesprings.wordpress.com/2022/06/02/from-the-massachusetts-institute-of-technology-engineers-develop-nanoparticles-that-cross-the-blood-brain-barrier/
3. https://indiaeducationdiary.in/engineers-develop-nanoparticles-that-cross-the-blood-brain-barrier/

Cite this article:

Sri Vasagi K (2022), Nanoparticles may Deliver Chemotherapy Drugs for Glioblastoma, Anatechmaz, pp.173