MBP Researcher Discovers Simple Way to Deliver Drugs to Tumor Cells

MBP researcher Dr. Gang Zheng and a group of colleagues at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre have discovered a new method for drug delivery to cancerous tumor cells.

Through their research, Dr. Zheng and his team discovered that ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) can be used in lipid nanoparticles to allow cancer drugs to enter cells. EDTA is a chelator, meaning it binds and removes metal ions from its surroundings. While EDTA has been used to treat heavy metal poisoning in biomedicine, the researchers wanted to test its effect as a “cell opener” to gain entry to cancer cells.

In their experiments, EDTA acted like a detergent to make cell membranes more flexible and absorbent of nanoparticle liposomes. This enhanced the efficacy of intracellular drug delivery, leading to the increased effectiveness of photodynamic therapy and higher survival rates of mice in a tumor-infected state.

The team will further explore how the newly discovered mechanism can be applied in EDTA-lipid-based nanoparticle delivery for therapy.

Learn more about this research on the Chemistry Views website.