A new class of drug transporters made of DNA that are 20,000 times smaller than a human hair has been designed and tested by a group of Canadian researchers.
According to a new study in Nature Communications, these transporters can be programmed to deliver optimal concentrations of drugs, making them more efficient than currently used methods.
It's a medical challenge to have optimal dosages at all times.
Providing and maintaining a therapeutic drug dosage is a key way to successfully treat disease. Overexposure leads to drug resistance and reduces efficiency.
Maintaining an optimal concentration of drugs in the blood is a major challenge. Patients are forced to take multiple doses at regular intervals due to the rapid degradation of drugs. Each patient has a different drug concentration in their blood.
The associate professor of chemistry at the University of Michigan started to explore how biological systems control and maintain the concentration of biomolecules after learning that only about half of cancer patients get an optimal drug dosage during certain chemotherapy.
The strength of the interaction between the transporters and their molecule is what determines the concentration of the free molecule.
A simple idea led to the creation of artificial drug transporters that mimic the natural effect of maintaining a precise concentration of a drug.
The first author of the study, a student at the UdeM, identified and developed two DNA transporters, one for quinine and the other for doxorubicin, which are used to treat breast cancer and leukemia.
He showed how easy it would be to reprogram the artificial transporters to deliver and maintain a specific amount of drug.
Desrosiers said that they found that the nanotransporters could be used to prolong the effect of the drug and reduce the dose during treatment.
He said that they can be directed to specific parts of the body where the drug is most needed and that should reduce most side effects.
The reduced cardiotoxicity is due to the treatment of the mice.
A group of people collaborated to demonstrate the effectiveness of these transporters.
The team demonstrated that a specific drug-transporter formula allows doxorubicin to be maintained in the blood and reduces its dispersal towards key organs such as the heart and lungs.
In mice treated with this formula, doxorubicin was maintained 18 times longer in the blood and cardiotoxicity was reduced as well, keeping the mice more healthy.
Vallée-Bélisle said that thenanotransporters have a highVersatility.
We have shown the working principle of these transporters for two drugs. Thanks to the high programmability of the chemistries, one can now design the transporters to deliver a wide range of threrapeuticmolecules.
He said that these transporters could be combined with human-designed liposomic transporters that are currently being employed to deliver drugs.
Do you mean a clinical study for blood cancer?
The researchers want to know if their discovery is clinically efficient. It could be ideal to treat blood cancers because of the doxorubicin's ability to maintain the drug in blood circulation.
Vallée-Bélisle said that they envision that similar nanotransporters may be developed to deliver drugs to other locations in the body and maximize the presence of the drug at tumors. The efficiency of drugs would be greatly improved by this.
Nature Communications has more information on self-regulation for drug delivery.
Journal information: Nature Communications
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