New drug delivery mechanism could aid breast cancer treatment

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — In a study published in the Journal of Extracellular Vesicles, scientists from the UF Health Cancer Institute have found a way to make treatment for a notoriously aggressive breast cancer more effective.

Using a delivery system that relies on extracellular vesicles (small, lipid nanoparticles secreted from a myriad of cell types), the team was able to circumvent two common difficulties associated with a targeted treatment for triple negative breast cancer: access to tumor sites and stable and effective transport in the body.

“We wanted to see if extracellular vesicles (EVs) might overcome these challenges of poor delivery and instability of this targeted drug,” said Nina Erwin, a doctoral candidate in the department of pharmaceutics at the UF College of Pharmacy.

When EVs were loaded with proteolysis-targeting chimaeras, or PROTACs, the team saw significantly reduced tumor growth and enhanced survival in mouse models. PROTACs work by cajoling the cell’s in-house cleaning cycle, a process known as proteolysis, into removing errant guests — like irregular proteins — that are leading the creation of tumors.