UCLA researchers have developed NanoCamp, a novel cancer therapeutic consisting of mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSNs) conjugated with camptothecin. The MSN surface has been further engineered with folic acid to specifically target tumor cells. NanoCamp was injected intravenously into mice with human breast and pancreatic cancer xenografts and was found to have significantly lower toxicity than camptothecin alone, with significantly improved outcomes in both safety and efficacy. The researchers show by in vivo imaging that the MSNs accumulate preferentially at the tumor, and that localized delivery of camptothecin results in tumor shrinkage. Importantly, NanoCamp exhibits significantly reduced toxicity compared to camptothecin alone, and blood and tissue samples revealed no serological, hematological or histopathological abnormalities. The vehicles, MSNs, are rapidly excreted from the body by urine after releasing the loaded camptothecin. These results demonstrate the efficacy and safety of MSNs as important anticancer drug delivery vehicles, and confirm the potential of NanoCamp in cancer therapy. NanoCamp can be further engineered using other existing UCLA nanoparticle technologies (see below) to allow controlled release of drugs by a variety of cellular and external stimuli, including enzymatic cleavage, changes in pH, or photoactivation. Together, NanoCamp and other related drugs represent a novel means to specifically targeting tumors, increasing tumor shrinkage efficiency while reducing the toxic side effects of traditional chemotherapy.

File Number: 22124 

Web site: http://techtransfer.universityofcalifornia.edu/...

Disease: Cancer

Other Information:

Summary
UCLA researchers have invented a new nanodrug in which mesoporous silica nanoparticle-based (MSN) nanodelivery vehicles are used to package water-insoluble anticancer drugs. They are currently developing NanoCamp, consisting of camptothecin incorporated into the pores of MSNs. They have shown that NanoCamp (1) is safe and biocompatible, (2) accumulates preferentially in the tumor, and (3) is excreted in four days from mice. NanoCamp promises to be a new generation of nanodrug that shows improvement in tumor suppression with reduced toxic side effects over conventional chemotherapeutic drugs.