Ovarian cancer cell surface protein information intact… Confirmation of higher effect than drug administration alone in animal experiments
In ovarian cancer, a substance that improves the therapeutic effect by making the treatment respond only to cancer cells except for normal cells has emerged.
Professor Hak-Jun Seong and Hyo-Jin Yoon, Department of Medical Engineering, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Professor Seong-Hoon Kim, Jeong-Yun Lee, Young-Shin Jeong, and Yong-Jae Lee, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology The research team developed nanoparticles that increase the effectiveness of the treatment by transporting it to the ovarian cancer cells and applied it to a mouse model. It was announced on the 29th that it confirmed the actual efficacy.
Currently, there are no tests that can detect ovarian cancer early. For this reason, most patients are diagnosed with ovarian cancer at an early stage, but the 5-year survival rate for advanced ovarian cancer is about 30%, so the treatment results are not good.
In the meantime, in the case of ovarian cancer, the tumor was surgically removed and the remaining tumors were treated with drugs. While the types of drug treatment are limited, the treatment effect is poor because each patient responds differently to the drug treatment. Drug treatment also had a problem of destroying both normal cells and cancer cells at the same time.
Professor Hak-Jun Seong, Seong-Hoon Kim, and Jeong-Yun Lee, a research team, created ‘Nanovesicles’ derived from cancer cells, a substance that transports therapeutic agents to destroy only cancer cells. To test the performance of nanovesicles, after creating an artificial environment like a real human body, ovarian cancer chips were developed by culturing ovarian cancer extracted from ovarian cancer tissue. An experiment was conducted to confirm the actual effect by applying the ovarian cancer chip to a mouse model.
First, the research team produced nanovesicles by extruding ovarian cancer cells through filtering. Ovarian cancer cell-derived nanovesicles are exosome mimics that act like drones that transport proteins and ribonucleic acid (RNA) between cells. The use of nanovesicles enables precise delivery of therapeutic agents targeting ovarian cancer cells. This is because nanovesicles store protein information on the surface of cancer cells as they are.
In addition, the research team reproduced the environment in which ovarian cancer actually occurred to test the performance of nanovesicles. By creating a frame with 3D bioprinting technology and dissolving polymer fibers, an environment like real blood was realized. The research team named this ‘three-dimensional microvascular network’. In the three-dimensional microvascular network, biomaterials such as cells can be cultured and blood volume can be controlled according to the purpose of the study.
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Next, the research team developed an ovarian cancer chip that can be implanted in animals or humans by culturing actual ovarian cancer tissue in a three-dimensional microvascular network. In order to check whether the response of the ovarian cancer chip to the treatment is the same as that of the actual ovarian cancer, the same drug as the patient was administered and the results were observed.
It also went through the process of confirming the efficacy of nanovesicles through a three-dimensional microvascular network. After culturing normal and ovarian cancer tissues in a three-dimensional microvascular network, nanovesicles loaded with ovarian cancer therapeutics were injected. Nanovesicles did not respond to normal tissues, but only responded to ovarian cancer tissues, and the therapeutic effect of reducing the number of cancer cells in tissues was 1.4 times better than when the treatment alone was administered.
The effect of nanovesicles was cross-validated in a mouse model. The research team transplanted the developed ovarian cancer chip into mice and compared the results of administration of the treatment alone with the administration of nanovesicles loaded with the treatment. As a result, when nanovesicles were administered, the effect of reducing the size of cancer cells was improved by 1.8 times.
Professor Seong Hak-jun said, “The ovarian cancer chip made this time is an optimized system for continuously monitoring the effect of a treatment. It will be of great help.”
Meanwhile, the results of this study were published in the latest issue of Advanced Science (IF 16.806), an international academic journal.
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