Researchers kill drug-resistant lung cancer with 50 times less chemo

[n2doc]

The cancer drug paclitaxel just got more effective. For the first time, researchers from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have packaged it in containers derived from a patient's own immune system, protecting the drug from being destroyed by the body's own defenses and bringing the entire payload to the tumor.

"That means we can use 50 times less of the drug and still get the same results," said Elena Batrakova, Ph.D., an associate professor in the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy. "That matters because we may eventually be able to treat patients with smaller and more accurate doses of powerful chemotherapy drugs resulting in more effective treatment with fewer and milder side effects."

The work, led by Batrakova and her colleagues at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy's Center for Nanotechnology in Drug Delivery, is based on exosomes, which are tiny spheres harvested from the white blood cells that protect the body against infection. The exosomes are made of the same material as cell membranes, and the patient's body doesn't recognize them as foreign, which has been one of the toughest issues to overcome in the past decade with using plastics-based nanoparticles as drug-delivery systems.

"Exosomes are engineered by nature to be the perfect delivery vehicles," said Batrakova, who has also used this technique as a potential therapy for Parkinson's disease. "By using exosomes from white blood cells, we wrap the medicine in an invisibility cloak that hides it from the immune system. We don't know exactly how they do it, but the exosomes swarm the cancer cells, completely bypassing any drug resistance they may have and delivering their payload."

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http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/01/160114113632.htm

[tech3149]

1. Doesn't it piss you off?

It's not bad enough that all the good research is being done anywhere but here. Because cannabis is still Schedule 1 we don't even think about all the beneficial effects that have been shown by research elsewhere.

[Lithos]

2. Question

Why do you consider North Carolina - anywhere but here? Also, there was no mention of cannabis, they are using the body's own defense which seems to me to be far more "organic" than a foreign body even if it is a plant.

L-

[jeff47]

3. You really should actually read at least the post before replying.

Makes you far less of a poster child for the dangers of marijuana.

(And just to help you out, that second sentence is a joke)

[SoLeftIAmRight]

5. " We don't know exactly how they do it"

this quote must be taken to heart - there is so very much we do not know about the body and mind

[NCjack]

6. UNC Chapel Hill researchers, thank you for your work in

increasing the effectiveness of Paclitaxel, a natural compound discovered as a part of the National Cancer Institute's program to screen extracts of plants for anticancer activity. Paclitaxel is extracted from Taxus brevifolia, which is a rare evergreen found in old-growth forests in the Pacific Northwest of the USA. The results of UNC researchers will reduce the harvesting pressure on that plant. When it is driven beyond capacity to meet society's needs, and if I am stricken with lung cancer, I will be happy to accept a synthetic version of Paciltaxel.