Anticancer Therapy

Synthetic strategy to develop drug-loaded nanoparticles for anticancer therapy

Synthetic strategy to develop drug-loaded nanoparticles for anticancer therapy

Other than drug delivery for bone regeneration, we also develop novel strategies to deliver therapeutic molecules for anticancer therapy. We have previously shown that by conjugating small molecule drugs such as doxorubicin or bisphosphonate to hyaluronic acid (HA) significantly improve the therapeutic index of the drug. These drug conjugates target cell surface CD44 receptor overexpressed in several tumours. Therefore strategies to develop nanocarriers for small molecule drugs or large nucleic acid drugs could be explored for anticancer therapy. We have recently shown HA-based siRNA delivery carrier could be used to target specifically the osteosarcoma and colon carcinoma cells that overexpress CD44 receptors. Such a strategy could be applied for clinical anticancer therapy, as the delivery system is non-toxic and highly specific to cancer cells. This type of targeted drug delivery system will reduce drug dosage and associated toxic effects.

Recent related publication:

  1. Varghese, O. P.; Liu, J.; Sundaram, K.; Hilborn, J.; Oommen, O. P. Chondroitin sulfate derived theranostic nanoparticles for targeted drug delivery. Biomaterials Sci. 2016, 4, 1310-1313. http://dx.doi.org/10.1039/C6BM00335D
  2. Oommen, O. P.; Duehrkop, C.; Nilsson, B.; Hilborn, J.; Varghese, O. P. Multifunctional Hyaluronic Acid and Chondroitin Sulfate Nanoparticles: Impact of Glycosaminoglycan Presentation on Receptor Mediated Cellular Uptake and Immune Activation. ACS Applied Mater.Interface 2016, 8, 20614-24. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsami.6b06823
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