China News Service, Hangzhou, May 7 (Huang Lingyi, Liu Yanpeng) The latest global cancer burden data released by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) of the World Health Organization in 2020 shows that in 2020, there are 19.29 million new cancer cases worldwide.
Among them, China has 4.57 million new cancer cases and 3 million cancer deaths. The number of new cancers and cancer deaths rank first in the world.
How to treat tumors efficiently has become more and more concerned by the society.
On the 7th, the reporter learned from the Hangzhou International Science and Technology Innovation Center of Zhejiang University that the center’s Shen Youqing team has made new progress in tumor nano-drug delivery vehicles and tumor immunotherapy. The relevant results have been published in the "Natural Biomedical Engineering" ( Nature Biomedical Engineering and Nature Communications.
External force: "Drumming to pass fancy" to break the tumor "line of defense"
According to Shen Youqing’s team, a solid tumor is like a "sphere" wrapped in layers of cells. It is restricted by traditional carriers. When the drug reaches the vicinity of the "sphere", it will stop the "footstep" and it is difficult to break through the layers of cells. Penetrate into the tumor.
This time, the team has developed a polymer-drug conjugate with cell membrane affinity that can bind to tumor cells without adhesion to proteins.
The new nano-drug delivery vehicle will effectively solve the above-mentioned problems.
"The carrier non-stick protein is a prerequisite for the extravasation of drugs from blood vessels into tumor cells." The team of researchers explained that the surface of tumor cells is negatively charged, so conventional drug carriers are often positively charged to facilitate entry into cells.
But the positively charged drug carrier will interact with the protein in the blood, causing its ability to penetrate into the cell weakened.
"The nanomedicine we have developed is a polymer (English name OPDEA) that binds to phospholipids. It is not sticky to proteins and can attack the'line of defense' layer by layer to break the tumor." The team's scientific researcher said. After injection, the drug can circulate in the blood, and then maintain a dynamic balance between the plasma and the surface of red blood cells, and ultimately realize the efficient delivery of cancer drugs, greatly improving the efficacy.
It is reported that this scientific research result not only has great clinical translation value, but will also help design translational anti-cancer nano-drugs.
Schematic diagram of the mechanism of IOX1 enhanced chemical-immunotherapy.
Photo courtesy of Shen Youqing team
Internal power: "self-reform" inhibits tumor growth
If a new type of drug carrier is to assist tumor treatment through external forces, then immunotherapy is to modify the body's own cells, and then accurately deal with tumor cells, thereby enhancing the efficacy.
According to reports, the use of antibodies to block the interaction between receptors and ligands can restore human T cells to normal, thereby helping tumor treatment.
However, due to reasons such as poor tumor penetration, large-size antibodies are often difficult to function.
Recently, Shen Youqing's team discovered a highly effective immunotherapy small molecule-5-carboxy-8-hydroxyquinoline (IOX1), which can reduce the growth of solid tumors when combined with the tumor chemotherapy drug doxorubicin (DOX) .
"At present, we have verified through mouse models that this method can eliminate various cancers in mice and make them produce long-term immune memory. IOX1 inhibits the p-glycans of cancer cells through the JMJD1A/β-catenin/P-gp pathway. Proteins, and significantly increase DOX-induced immunostimulatory immunogenic cell death.” The team said that this method opens up new ideas for highly effective antibody-free chemotherapy immunotherapy.
(Finish)