Bioengineers develop breakthrough treatment to eradicate advanced-stage tumours in mice
Bioengineers have shown they can eradicate advanced-stage ovarian and colorectal cancer in mice in as little as six days with a treatment that could be ready for human clinical trials later this year.
The researchers at Rice University used implantable "drug factories" the size of a pinhead to deliver continuous, high doses of interleukin-2, a natural compound that activates white blood cells to fight cancer.
The drug-producing beads can be implanted with minimally invasive surgery. Each contains cells engineered to produce interleukin-2 that are encased in a protective shell.
The treatment and animal test results are described online in a Science Advances study co-authored by Omid Veiseh, Amanda Nash and colleagues from Rice, the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, the University of Virginia, and others.
Veiseh, an assistant professor of bioengineering whose lab produced the treatment, said human clinical trials could begin as soon as this fall because one of his team's key design criteria was helping cancer patients as quickly as possible.
The team chose only components that had previously proven safe for use in humans, and it has demonstrated the safety of the new treatment in multiple tests.
"We just administer once, but the drug factories keep making the dose every day, where it's needed until the cancer is eliminated," Veiseh said. "Once we determined the correct dose - how many factories we needed - we were able to eradicate tumours in 100% of animals with ovarian cancer and in seven of eight animals with colorectal cancer."
In the newly published study, researchers placed drug-producing beads beside tumours and within the peritoneum, a sac-like lining that supports the intestines, ovaries and other abdominal organs. Placement within this cavity concentrated interleukin-2 within tumours and limited exposure elsewhere.
"A major challenge in the field of immunotherapy is to increase tumour inflammation and anti-tumour immunity while avoiding systemic side effects of cytokines and other pro-inflammatory drugs," said study co-author Dr. Amir Jazaeri. "In this study, we demonstrated that the 'drug factories' allow regulatable local administration of interleukin-2 and eradication of tumour in several mouse models, which is very exciting. This provides a strong rationale for clinical testing."
Avenge Bio, a Massachusetts-based startup co-founded by Veiseh, has licensed the cytokine-factory technology from Rice.
