Although a variety of nanoparticles continue to show promise for improving cancer imaging and therapy, regulators and drug developers are concerned that these delivery systems may prove difficult to manufacture on a consistent basis, which is key for any agent designed for use in humans.
A new study from James Baker, Jr., M.D., PI, Cancer Nanotechnology Platform Partnership at the University of Michigan, and colleagues provides data showing that such concerns can be overcome.
Writing in the journal Anti-Cancer Drugs, the investigators present the results of studies designed to show that they could achieve consistent and specific targeting and cell-killing activity across multiple manufacturing batches of a dendrimer-based therapeutic agent. To assess targeting and cytotoxicity simultaneously, the investigators developed a novel system for growing in the same culture dish both targeted and nontargeted cells and distinguishing between the two by a difference in color. This “coculture” system comprises tumor cells that express a high-affinity folic acid receptor (FA+) and a similar tumor cell line that does not (FA-). The researchers modified the FA+ cells to also express a red fluorescent protein and the FA- cells to express a green fluorescent protein.