Researchers from the Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV), the Institute of Biomedicine of Valencia (IBV) and the Biomedical Research Center in Network for Bioengineering, Biomaterials and Nanomedicine (CIBER-BBN), have developed in the laboratory a new system to cause cell death in carcinogenic cells.

The system consists of nanocapsules loaded with a peptide, which targets the cancerous cells and is released in a controlled manner to generate the apoptosis of these cells. “So far, we have worked with cellular models and the results obtained are promising,” says Ramón Martínez Máñez, director of the Interuniversity Institute for Molecular Recognition and Technological Development of the UPV and scientific director of the CIBER-BBN.

The main novelty of this study, published in the latest issue of Chemistry-A European Journal, is the encapsulation of the peptide. According to Martínez Máñez, the current problem in the use of these molecules in clinical therapies is their high rate of degradation and low bioavailability. In fact, a large number of peptide therapeutic products do not obtain approval by regulatory agencies due to these limitations.

“Blood plasma hosts more than 120 proteins, among which there are numerous enzymes that degrade molecules. The encapsulation of peptides in mesoporous silica particles could be generally applied for the effective and controlled administration in clinical practice. In this case, when the nanoparticle enters the cells, the polylysine that covers the nanoparticles degrades and allows the releasing of the peptide, inducing the death of the cancer cell,” explains Jerónimo Bravo, researcher at the IBV.

The use of nanoencapsulated peptides would also reduce the toxicity of the therapy, since they are less aggressive than the cytotoxics currently used to induce apoptosis of cancer cells. “In addition, the encapsulation allows using less medication and would also reduce the side effects in patients,” says Jerónimo Bravo.

Now that the researchers have evaluated the nanocapsules in the laboratory, the next step is test them in animal models.

 

Source: SINC