One of the most encouraging trends in medicine in recent
years is the growth of systemic approaches to problem solving, much like
approaches in foresight. In other words, a range of factors often affect an
outcome, each requiring a solution that must work effectively in combination
with other related solutions.
A critical example of this multiple-problem challenge is improving
chemotherapy delivery in cancer treatment. Historically, the challenge has been
to target drugs accurately at cancer cells; the powerful drugs may often cause
damage to surrounding healthy tissue. The body may also treat these medical interventions
as intruders, attacking and disabling them through human immune mechanisms.
Moreover, even drug packages that actually reach the targeted tumor may be
entangled in the dense outer structures of a malignant mass, and thus unable to
reach and fully affect its critical internal structures.
Recently, researchers have used nanotech to create protective
vehicles and delivery mechanisms that now appear to overcome these obstacles. For
example, a team at the University of Tokyo has developed nano-level sheaths out
of glycol that can contain drug packages 200 times smaller than a red-blood
cell. Called polymeric micelles, these drug-delivery packages can penetrate
tumors by slipping through the irregular tumor surface; their smooth and
neutral coating prevents antibody defenses from activating. After delivering
drugs to their targets, the packages then dissolve in the high-acid cores of
cancer tumors.
There is hope that these nanotech sheaths can be now
combined with cancer-seeking antibodies already developed and may also offer
the ability to slip through the blood-brain barrier, which has continued to
resist traditional drug delivery. As is often the case in new and converging
technological developments, each of these developments is likely to further
accelerate advances in related technology solutions.
Timothy C. Mack
is managing principal of AAI Foresight Inc.
Source: Horacio Cabral
and Kazunori Kataoka, “Progress
of Drug-Loaded Polymeric Micelles into Clinical Studies,” Journal of Controlled Release (September 28, 2014), Volume 190, pages 465-476.
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