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Scientists at the Institute of Biophysics of the Future of MIPT have developed a universal nanoplatform for the treatment and diagnosis of cancer — targosomes. These are targeted nanocarriers based on a copolymer of lactic and glycolic acids for the diagnosis and chemophototherapy of highly aggressive HER2 overexpressing tumors. The nanoparticles have passed laboratory tests on animals and have shown an efficiency of tumor destruction of more than 90%. The research was carried out with the financial support of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation and the Russian Science Foundation, and the results are published in the Journal of Controlled Release.

Surgery and chemotherapy remain the main strategies for combating cancer. The disadvantage of chemotherapy is that, along with the destruction of cancer cells, drugs harm the rest of the body and lead to serious side effects. An important task for scientists remains the search for compounds that are able to selectively fight tumors without affecting healthy cells. One of the ways is targeted delivery of drugs to certain types of cells due to specific interactions with cancer markers — receptors on the surface of cancer cells. At the same time, cancer cells are characterized by a high mutation rate and easily gain resistance to various methods of exposure.

In the future, a universal nanoplatform developed by MIPT scientists is able to solve these problems. "We have done a lot of research and experimental work. As a result, successful visualization of the tumor and distant metastases was demonstrated using the example of targosomes loaded simultaneously with a fluorescent dye for diagnosis, a photosensitizer and a chemotherapy drug. They were aimed at the clinically significant HER2 cancer marker. The effectiveness of tumor destruction was more than 90%," said Victoria Shipunova, head of the Laboratory of Biochemical Research of Carcinogenesis at MIPT.

High therapeutic efficacy was achieved due to the combined effect of different cytotoxicity mechanisms: the chemotherapeutic drug irinotecan and a photosensitizer when an external IR radiation source was connected.

The authors of the study noted that multimodal biocompatible targosomes ― These are the medicines of the future and the basis for the development of personalized medicine medicines: they can be customized to the individual characteristics of each patient.

The news was prepared with the support of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation and the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Information provided by the MIPT Center for Scientific Communication

Image. Structures of multimodal targosomes for oncoteranostics. Source: Journal of Controlled Release

The information is taken from the portal "Scientific Russia" (https://scientificrussia.ru /)