Researchers at the University of Montreal Hospital Research Centre (CRCHUM) have developed a new injectable 'biogel' that is effective in delivering anti-cancer agents directly into cancerous tumours and killing them.
The technology has been successfully tested in the laboratory and if it works in patients, the therapy could one day revolutionise treatment for many forms of cancer.
The biogel is liquid at room temperature and gels at 37ºC, which is the temperature of the human body.
Réjean Lapointe, co-author of a study on the technology recently published in the journal Biomaterials, said: 'The strength of this biogel is that it is compatible with anti-cancer immune cells. It is used to encapsulate these cells and eventually administer them using a syringe or catheter into the tumour or directly beside it. Instead of injecting these cells or anti-cancer drugs throughout the entire body via the bloodstream, we can treat the cancer locally. We hope that this targeted approach will improve current immunotherapies.'
One form of immunotherapy involves treating cancer patients with anti-cancer immune cells. With this adoptive cell therapy, these T lymphocytes or T cells are produced naturally by the body and have the ability to destroy cancer cells, but they are generally too weak and too few to eradicate the cancer alone. T cells are therefore cultivated in the laboratory and then re-injected into the patient’s blood. While this form of immunotherapy has shown promising results in cases of advanced cancer, it is not always possible to generate enough T cells. Moreover, high doses of interleukin-2, a hormone added to maximise the therapy have a toxic effect.
The strength of this biogel is that it is compatible with anti-cancer immune cells
'With our technique, we only need to administer a few dozen million T cells, instead of the billions currently required. We can also administer compounds that ‘awaken’ the immune system to fight against cancer,' said Lapointe, who is a researcher at the CRCHUM and professor at the University of Montreal.
The recipe for this promising biogel was developed by Sophie Lerouge, a researcher at the CRCHUM and professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the École de technologie supérieure.
The compound is made from chitosane, a biodegradable material extracted from the shells of crustaceans, to which gelling agents are added.
'The formulation is liquid at room temperature, which facilitates its injection, but quickly takes on a cohesive and resistant structure at 37ºC.'
She added: 'We also needed a hydrogel that was non-toxic for the body and provided excellent survival and growth of the encapsulated cells.'
The biogel was successfully tested in several in vitro models, including melanoma and kidney cancer.
'The T lymphocytes in the gel are functional and can grow for two to three weeks, be released from the gel, and kill the cancerous cells,' said Lapointe.
The next step is to demonstrate the effectiveness of the biogel in animals and humans.