Synthetic Lethality Nanoparticles Kill Difficult to Treat Cancers

Researchers at the University of Iowa have developed dual-action nanoparticles that have been shown, in a laboratory study, to selectively kill endometrial cancer (uterine serous carcinoma) cells. The therapeutic approach combines paclitaxel, a common chemo agent, and nintedanib, aka BIBF 1120, a new cancer drug that is typically used to hinder angiogenesis, but in the current case was used to target cancer cells with a specific mutation. The mutation that nintedanib looks for is called Loss of Function p53 that prevents normal function of tumor cells and makes them less susceptible to chemotherapy.

This is because chemo really does most of its job through preventing cell division. Cells that have essentially paused their lifecycle are not prone to being eradicated by chemo agents. The new nanoparticles overcome this process, motivating the cancer cells to spring to life again and initiate mitosis, and so make them susceptible to chemo that is already conveniently present nearby.

“Basically, we are taking advantage of the tumor cells’ Achilles heel—the Loss of Function mutation—and then sweeping in and killing them with chemotherapy,” said Kareem Ebeid, a University of Iowa pharmacy grad student that worked on the study. “We call this a synthetically lethal situation because we are creating the right conditions for massive cell death.”

So far this approach was tested on endometrial cancer cells, but in principle it should work on a variety of other cancers that exhibit similar defensive properties.

Study in Nature Nanotechnology: Synthetically lethal nanoparticles for treatment of endometrial cancer…

Via: University of Iowa…