Lung cancer is the most common forms of cancer and the leading cause of deaths. A recent study has been published in the European Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences. According to this study, the delivery of nanomedicines using gas bubbles has shown a unique way of transporting cytotoxins to the lungs of lung cancer patients. The method enables focused treatments and local action of drugs also helps in preventing its side effects. Their method is so promising that the research team has taken out a patent. The teams aimed at investigating the ability of microbubbles to target delivery of nanoparticles to lung tissue.
The results from SINTEX’s experiments with mice have shown that the impact of this medication is vital. SINTEX has signed a license agreement with a pharmaceutical company as well. In the study, the team found that the tumors were significantly reduced in size after only a month following the start of treatment. “We’re very confident that this approach may offer us a new cure for lung cancer,” says researcher and Project Manager Andreas Åslund, who works at SINTEF’s Department of Biotechnology and Nanomedicine.
Originally, the research team was working to identify a method that would deliver drugs to the brain. Methods other than delivering drugs via bloodstream are required to reach brain tumors. This problem was addressed by the team with manufacturing of gas bubbles that enclose the nanocapsules containing the drugs. “In the first instance, an accumulation of gas bubbles here wasn’t what we wanted, but the discovery meant that we could turn the problem upside down and instead exploit the phenomenon to reach tumors in the lungs,” Åslund says.
This technology makes it possible to deliver more than just cancer drugs to the lungs.
The information shared in this blog is for educational purposes only.
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