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'Stealth' nanoparticles could improve cancer vaccines

Date:
October 1, 2014
Source:
American Chemical Society
Summary:
Cancer vaccines have recently emerged as a promising approach for killing tumor cells before they spread. But so far, most clinical candidates haven't worked that well. Now, scientists have developed a new way to deliver vaccines that successfully stifled tumor growth when tested in laboratory mice. And the key is in the vaccine's unique stealthy nanoparticles.
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Cancer vaccines have recently emerged as a promising approach for killing tumor cells before they spread. But so far, most clinical candidates haven't worked that well. Now, scientists have developed a new way to deliver vaccines that successfully stifled tumor growth when tested in laboratory mice. And the key, they report in the journal ACS Nano, is in the vaccine's unique stealthy nanoparticles.

Hiroshi Shiku, Naozumi Harada and colleagues explain that most cancer vaccine candidates are designed to flag down immune cells, called macrophages and dendritic cells, that signal "killer" T cells to attack tumors. The problem is that approaches based on targeting these generally circulatingimmune cells have not been very successful.

But recent research has suggested that a subset of macrophages only found deep inside lymph nodes could play a major role in slowing cancer. But how could one get a vaccine to these special immune cells without first being gobbled up by the macrophages and dendritic cells circulating in the body? Shiku's team wanted to see if stealthy nanoparticles they had developed and clinically tested in patients might hold the answer.

The researchers injected the nanoparticles into mice. They found that the particles, which have no electric charge or surface molecules that would attract the attention of circulating immune cells, were able to enter the mice's lymph nodes. But once inside the lymph nodes' core, the special kind of macrophage engulfed the particles. When molecules for signaling killer T cells were put inside the nanoparticles, they hindered tumor growth far better than existing vaccines.


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Materials provided by American Chemical Society. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.


Journal Reference:

  1. Daisuke Muraoka, Naozumi Harada, Tae Hayashi, Yoshiro Tahara, Fumiyasu Momose, Shin-ichi Sawada, Sada-atsu Mukai, Kazunari Akiyoshi, Hiroshi Shiku. Nanogel-Based Immunologically Stealth Vaccine Targets Macrophages in the Medulla of Lymph Node and Induces Potent Antitumor Immunity. ACS Nano, 2014; 8 (9): 9209 DOI: 10.1021/nn502975r

Cite This Page:

American Chemical Society. "'Stealth' nanoparticles could improve cancer vaccines." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 1 October 2014. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/10/141001102725.htm>.
American Chemical Society. (2014, October 1). 'Stealth' nanoparticles could improve cancer vaccines. ScienceDaily. Retrieved March 19, 2024 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/10/141001102725.htm
American Chemical Society. "'Stealth' nanoparticles could improve cancer vaccines." ScienceDaily. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/10/141001102725.htm (accessed March 19, 2024).

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