A new study published in the Journal of Extracellular Vesicles found that a new way to treat triple negative breast cancer was more effective.
Researchers from the UF Health Cancer Institute used a delivery system relying on extracellular vesicles (EVs), which are “small, lipid nanoparticles secreted from a myriad of cell types,” to circumvent common difficulties associated with treating triple negative breast cancer. Typically, there is difficulty in accessing tumor sites and ensuring “stable and effective transport in the body” when treating this cancer.
The team loaded EVs with “PROTACs,” or proteolysis-targeting chimaeras, which showed promise in mouse models but “struggled to do the same” in living human systems before the new innovation. They infused EVs with a “specific type of PROTACs developed to suppress breast cancer tumor growth without inciting dysfunction in healthy cells.”
The new method “not only improved how well the drugs could attach to carriers, but also helped give a ‘second life’ to the drugs as they were ferried to tumor sites.” Therapeutic outcomes were enhanced both in the sense of how the drugs reach the tumor and how they work against the tumor once they arrive.
