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CANCER NANOMEDICINE

A synthetic lethal bullet

Nature Nanotechnology volume 13, pages 6–7 (2018)Cite this article

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Nanoparticles loaded with paclitaxel and nintedanib induce synthetic lethality in endometrial cancer cells.

Conventional chemotherapeutic drugs like paclitaxel and doxorubicin cause cell death by affecting cellular processes that are more active in tumours but that exist in normal cells as well: because of this, they are highly toxic, imposing limits to their doses. For more than twenty years, nanomedicine has focused on developing nanoparticles as simple drug-delivery vehicles that can drive chemotherapy drugs towards tumours. Now, the new frontier in the field is represented by the so-called molecularly targeted cancer therapies. These are potentially more effective and less harmful to normal cells than conventional chemotherapies since they are designed to specifically interact with receptors and signalling molecules that play a pivotal role in cancer cell proliferation, and to target key tumour-promoting micro-environmental factors. The latest formulations exploit synthetic lethal interactions between tumour-specific aberrations and additional molecular processes. Yet, the efficacy of these therapeutic molecules remains affected by limited targeted delivery. Now, reporting in Nature Nanotechnology, Ebeid and co-authors propose an innovative approach to generate ‘synthetic lethal bullets’ with high tumour-delivery efficiency, which combines conventional and molecularly targeted anticancer agents with an innovative nanoparticle technology aimed at shrinking endometrial tumours1.

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Fig. 1: TPGS–PLGA nanoparticles loaded with nintedanib and paclitaxel extravasate through the leaky tumour vasculature and reach tumour cells.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Early Clinical Trials Unit, Oncology Department, Antwerp University Hospital, Edegem, Belgium

    Christian Rolfo

  2. Center for Oncological Research, University of Antwerp, Edegem, Belgium

    Christian Rolfo

  3. Department of Medical Oncology, Cancer Center Amsterdam, VU University medical center, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Elisa Giovannetti

  4. Cancer Pharmacology Lab, AIRC-Start-Up Unit, Pisa, Italy

    Elisa Giovannetti

Authors
  1. Christian Rolfo
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  2. Elisa Giovannetti
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Correspondence to Christian Rolfo or Elisa Giovannetti.

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Rolfo, C., Giovannetti, E. A synthetic lethal bullet. Nature Nanotech 13, 6–7 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41565-017-0038-2

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