PLGA from PolySciTech used in development of nitric-oxide delivery system for cancer treatment

 

Nitric oxide works well as a local anticancer agent due to its low off-target side effect. For this to work, however, the nitric oxide must be delivered very precisely to the cancer cells. Recently, researchers at Pusan National University (Korea) used PLGA (AP037) from PolySciTech (www.polyscitech.com) to create nitric-oxide releasing nanoparticles for tumor treatment. This research holds promise to provide improved treatments for cancer. Read more: Lee, Juho, Shwe Phyu Hlaing, Nurhasni Hasan, Dongmin Kwak, Hyunwoo Kim, Jiafu Cao, In-Soo Yoon, Hwayoung Yun, Yunjin Jung, and Jin-Wook Yoo. "Tumor-Penetrable Nitric Oxide-Releasing Nanoparticles Potentiate Local Antimelanoma Therapy." ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces (2021). https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acsami.1c07407

“Abstract: Although nitric oxide (NO) has been emerging as a novel local anticancer agent because of its potent cytotoxic effects and lack of off-target side effects, its clinical applications remain a challenge because of the short effective diffusion distance of NO that limits its anticancer activity. In this study, we synthesized albumin-coated poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA)-conjugated linear polyethylenimine diazeniumdiolate (LP/NO) nanoparticles (Alb-PLP/NO NPs) that possess tumor-penetrating and NO-releasing properties for an effective local treatment of melanoma. Sufficient NO-loading and prolonged NO-releasing characteristics of Alb-PLP/NO NPs were acquired through PLGA-conjugated LP/NO copolymer (PLP/NO) synthesis, followed by nanoparticle fabrication. In addition, tumor penetration ability was rendered by the electrostatic adsorption of the albumin on the surface of the nanoparticles. The Alb-PLP/NO NPs showed enhanced intracellular NO delivery efficiency and cytotoxicity to B16F10 murine melanoma cells. In B16F10-tumor-bearing mice, the Alb-PLP/NO NPs showed improved extracellular matrix penetration and spatial distribution in the tumor tissue after intratumoral injection, resulting in enhanced antitumor activity. Taken together, the results suggest that Alb-PLP/NO NPs represent a promising new modality for the local treatment of melanoma.”