There is a growing sense of urgency in developing effective targeted nanotherapies for clinical trials. Heterogeneous distribution of therapeutics due to physiologic barriers attributable to abnormal tumor vasculature and interstitium remains a major issue. Development of nanoparticles that are contained within actively homing cells capable of ameboid movement within the tumor along with releasing therapeutic drugs in response to external stimuli such as A/C magnetic fields would improve delivery. We have been developing cell-based delivery systems for treating solid tumors and metastases. Defensive cells (neutrophils and monocytes) are suitable candidates for the development of cell-based delivery systems, because they are autologous and are known to migrate to tumors and metastases. One of the major remaining problems in cell-based cancer therapy is to deliver sufficient quantities of chemotherapeutic drugs to the delivery cells, and then to the tumor. Defensive cells have evolved to detect and consume bacteria very efficiently. A variety of chemotherapeutic drugs can be loaded into bacteria. The bacterial vessel enhances uptake by tumor associated neutrophil granulocytes and protects the cells from the drugs toxicity. This work demonstrates the efficient loading of doxorubicin and DP 44 mt into Micrococcus luteus, overcoming the drugs' water solubility as a major obstacle.

Utilizing bacteria as a drug delivery agent for chemotherapy

247th National Meeting (2014)

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