Sarah Hale, Kelly Conlon, John Porter, Cristina Espinosa Garcia, Usoa Peral, Alessandro Pace, Ketan Patel, Meike Roskamp, Phil Williams, Angela Robinson, Richard Perrins and Tom Coulter
Midatech Pharma, UK
Posters & Accepted Abstracts: J Cancer Sci Ther
Cytotoxic chemotherapy is the standard of care for many types of cancer despite frequently observed severe side effects. The primary goal of a new cancer treatment is to enhance therapeutic efficacy and minimise harmful side effects. Gold nanoparticles (GNPâ��s) are promising candidates for drug delivery systems for cancer therapeutics due to both the intrinsic non-toxic properties of the gold nanocore and the ability to tailor the functionality of the surface. The highly potent microtubule inhibitor maytansine, is a potent anti-cancer agent, however clinical development was halted due to toxicity. DM1 is a derivative of maytansine. Here we describe how tumour targeting of DM1 using ultra small GNPâ��s (MTC-100038) results in improved efficacy and tolerability compared to DM1 alone in pre-clinical HCC cancer models. In subcutaneous and orthotopic xenograft mouse models (BALB/c nude, NOD/ SCID) using human hepatoma cell lines (BEL7404, Hep3B), MTC-100038 increased both the tolerability of DM1 and demonstrated potent anti-tumour activity compared to controls. When comparing reduction in tumour growth, the highest tolerated dose of DM1 alone (150 �¼g/kg) was not significantly different to vehicle control. Peak reduction in tumour growth with MTC-100038 (337.5 �¼g/ kg) was greater than six-fold (mean reduction more than three-fold) compared to the highest tolerated dose of the current standard of care (SOC) sorafenib (60 mg/kg) in the same studies. In summary, MTC-100038 delivered significant efficacy in mouse models of HCC when compared to the maximum tolerated doses of both DM1 alone, and the current HCC SOC, sorafenib. MTC-100038 will now enter IND enabling studies.
Kelly Conlon is currently working in Midatech Pharma, UK.
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