University of Mississippi researchers have developed 3D-printed spanlastic nanocarriers that deliver chemotherapy directly to tumour sites, potentially reducing systemic side effects.
Researchers at the University of Mississippi have developed a novel approach to cancer treatment that could allow drugs to be delivered directly to tumours while reducing the side effects often associated with chemotherapy.
The study explores how 3D-printed drug carriers can be implanted at tumour sites, offering a more targeted and potentially less harmful form of therapy.
Changing the way drugs reach tumours
The researchers demonstrated that tiny drug carriers known as spanlastics can be produced using advanced 3D printing techniques and loaded with cancer-fighting medication. These microscopic carriers can then be placed directly at the site of a tumour, where they release their therapeutic payload.
“This paper introduced a new 3D printing concept called FRESH 3D printing,” said Mo Maniruzzaman, Chair and Professor of Pharmaceutics and Drug Delivery at the University of Mississippi. “It uses spanlastics as a new nano-drug delivery vehicle for anticancer drug delivery. We actually applied this on breast cancer cells and we got some really, really promising data.”
This paper introduced a new 3D printing concept called FRESH 3D printing
The technology moves treatment away from conventional chemotherapy, which is typically administered orally or injected into the bloodstream, allowing drugs to circulate throughout the body.
Reducing harmful side effects
Traditional chemotherapy targets rapidly dividing cells, however, it also affects other fast-growing cells such as those in hair follicles, the intestinal lining and skin. This widespread impact leads to common side effects like hair loss, nausea, vomiting and anaemia.
“Delivering chemotherapeutics is always a nasty business because of the severe side effects that the patients experience,” said Jaidev Chakka, Principal Scientist in the School of Pharmacy at the University of Mississippi. “The goal of this publication is how we can minimise those side effects”
By delivering drugs directly to tumours, researchers want to limit exposure to healthy tissues and significantly reduce these adverse effects.
Precision targeting at microscopic scale
According to the researchers, the use of 3D-printed implants allows medication to be concentrated precisely where it is needed.
“Having the drug in an implant, or in our case, a 3D-printed construct, and placing that construct at the tumour sites means we can concentrate the delivery to the tumour area, instead of throughout the whole body,” said Elom Doe, a third-year doctoral student in pharmaceutical sciences at the University of Mississippi.
Having the drug in an implant, or in our case, a 3D-printed construct, and placing that construct at the tumour sites means we can concentrate the delivery to the tumour area, instead of throughout the whole body
Each spanlastic particle measures between 200 and 300 nanometres in length. By comparison, a single human hair is around 100,000 nanometres wide. This extremely small size allows the particles to pass through cell membranes and deliver high concentrations of drugs directly into cancer cells.
“Every drug for cancer has to act inside the cell, either on RNA or on DNA or inhibiting a cell pathway,” said Chakka. “If the drug is not able to penetrate the cell membrane or be taken up by the cell, the effect of the drug is none. But when we put that drug in a nanoparticle, we are also protecting the drug from degradation, so we are actually pushing a good amount of drug molecules into the cell in one go.”
Promising signs but further research needed
The researchers believe this targeted method could be particularly effective for early-stage cancers, before the disease has spread to other parts of the body.
However, they caution that the current findings are based on laboratory studies conducted outside the human body.
“What we did is test how the drug acts in vitro or outside the body,” said Doe. “We would have to test it in in vivo models before we can think of delivering it to patients and that’s not a job you can do in a day.”
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