Drug-delivery research shows early promise

Published: 24-Mar-2010
Drug Delivery Research & Development Pharmaceutical

Nanotechnology drug delivery could provide breakthrough in cancer treatment

Northeastern University pharmaceutical sciences professor Mansoor Amiji is leading interdisciplinary research into nanotechnology-based methods of drug delivery that could provide breakthroughs in treating diseases such as cancer, Alzheimer’s, schizophrenia and HIV/AIDS.

Amiji and his collaborators from the Colleges of Arts and Sciences and Engineering at the University in Boston, Massachusetts, US have been awarded R21 grants by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to support their research. The NIH’s R21 programme encourages novel and high-risk/high-reward research by providing support for the early and conceptual stages of project development.

The National Cancer Institute has awarded a two-year, US$350,000 grant to develop more potent therapies for killing cancer cells that become resistant after initial chemotherapeutic treatment.

Amiji, working with chemistry and chemical biology professors Robert Hanson and Max Diem, will explore whether including the cell killer ceramide as a part of chemotherapy will kill tumour cells that are resistant to other treatments. Using nanocarrier technology, the combination treatment would be delivered directly to a cancer cell’s mitochondria to trigger cell death.

The National Institute of Neurological Diseases and Stroke has awarded a two-year, US$475,000 grant to Amiji and chemical engineering professor Rebecca Carrier to examine a ‘nano-emulsion’ system of delivery that will allow drugs to cross the blood-brain barrier. The process could greatly increase the recovery chances of a patient with Parkinson’s or HIV/AIDS, because ‘having a system to get these drug therapies to their appropriate place of action is critical,’ said Amiji.

Current drugs developed for treating brain diseases cannot reach the brain 98% of the time because of the low permeability of the blood-brain barrier. Researchers are investigating whether a nano-sized mixture of water, oil droplets rich in omega-3 fatty acids and curcumin, an Indian spice, will help drugs cross the blood-brain barrier by increasing its permeability.

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