Numb and destroy
Breast cancer is one of the most common types of cancer in women, and despite advances in diagnosis and treatment, about a thousand women in Israel die from this disease every year. Approximately 15% of them are under 50 years of age. Worldwide, 685,000 women die from breast cancer every year. Researchers from the Israel Institute of Technology have developed an innovative treatment for breast cancer, which is a nanoparticle with an anesthetic that targets the nervous system.
Professor Avi Schroeder has many years of experience in developing innovative cancer treatments, including breast cancer and, in particular, triple negative breast cancer – the most aggressive type of cancer characterized by rapid growth with a higher risk of metastasis. The technologies developed in his laboratory include new methods of encapsulating drug molecules into nanoparticles that transport the drug to the tumor and release it inside without damaging healthy tissues.
Schroeder's group found that cancer cells interact with the neurons surrounding them, increasing the germination of neuronal processes into the tumor, and this infiltration stimulates the division, growth and migration of cancer cells. In other words, cancer cells recruit nerve cells and use them for their own purposes.
In the new study, the group has developed a treatment that indirectly targets cancer through nerve cells. It consists in the introduction of pegylated lipids into the bloodstream containing the local anesthetic bupivacaine. Nanoparticles move with the blood to the tumor, accumulate around nerve cells in the cancerous tissue and block them. The connection between nerve and cancer cells is interrupted, as a result, the growth and metastasis of the tumor to the lungs, brain and bone marrow is suppressed.
The nanoparticles mimic the cell membrane and are coated with special polymers that mask them from the immune system, providing a long circulation time in the bloodstream. To achieve the maximum effect, it is necessary to create nanoparticles of a certain size, because in fact this is the key to penetration into the tumor. The fact is that cancer cells stimulate the formation of new blood vessels around themselves, but these vessels are defective and contain nanoscale holes that allow the penetration of nanoparticles. Cancerous tissue is characterized by poor lymphatic drainage, which further increases the accumulation of therapeutic particles.
That is why nanoparticles move through the bloodstream without penetrating into healthy tissues. Only when they enter the damaged blood vessels of the tumor, leak out through the vascular wall, accumulate around the nerve cells of the cancer tissue and interrupt their interaction with cancer cells. Thus, nanoparticles with bupivacaine represent a targeted cancer treatment that does not affect healthy nerve cells.
In vitro on cancer cell cultures, nanoparticles with a size of 100 nm were easily absorbed by neurons, moving from the bodies to the processes. Bupivacaine inhibited the growth of neuronal processes and the transmission of signals to cancer cells, suppressing their viability. In vivo, in mouse models of triple negative breast cancer, nanoparticles with bupivacaine inhibited tumor growth and the spread of metastases.
Thus, targeted treatment with nanoparticles with bupivacaine has potential clinical benefits for women suffering from breast cancer.
Article by M.Kaduri et al. Targeting neurons in the tumor microenvironment with bupivacaine nanoparticles reduces breast cancer progression and metastases is published in the journal Science Advances.
Aminat Adzhieva, portal "Eternal Youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru based on the materials of the Israel Institute of Technology: Cancer cells mobilizing the nervous system? Let's use this to inhibit the tumor.