Cerebral glioblastomaWIKIMEDIA, KGHGlioblastomas, highly aggressive malignant brain tumors, have a high propensity for recurrence and are associated with low survival rates. Even when surgeons remove these tumors, deeply infiltrated cancer cells often remain and contribute to relapse. By harnessing neutrophils, a critical player in the innate immune response, scientists have devised a way to deliver drugs to kill these residual cells, according to a mouse study published today (June 19) in Nature Nanotechnology.
Neutrophils, the most common type of white blood cell, home in to areas of injury and inflammation to fight infections. Prior studies in both animals and humans have reported that neutrophils can cross the blood-brain barrier, and although these cells are not typically attracted to glioblastomas, they are recruited at sites of tumor removal in response to post-operative inflammation.
To take advantage of the characteristics of these innate immune cells, researchers at China Pharmaceutical University encased paclitaxel, a traditional chemotherapy drug, with lipids. These liposome capsules were loaded into neutrophils and injected in the blood of three mouse models of glioblastoma. When the treatment was applied following surgical removal of the main tumor mass, the neutrophil-carrying drugs were able to cross the blood-brain barrier, destroy ...
