Gelatin Nanoparticles Deliver Anticancer Gene Therapy Using an
engineered gelatin nanoparticle designed to remain in
circulation long enough to be taken up by tumors and then fall
apart once inside a malignant cell, investigators at
Northeastern University have successfully delivered an
anticancer gene to tumors in mice. The delivered gene was
therapeutically active and stopped tumor growth. This work
appears in the journal Cancer Gene Therapy. Mansoor Amiji,
Ph.D., principal investigator of the Nanotherapeutic Strategy
for Multidrug Resistant Tumors Platform Partnership, led this
effort to develop nanoparticles for delivering therapeutic genes
to tumors. In this work, the investigators started with
nanoparticles made of gelatin modified with crosslinking sulfur
groups. Sulfur-enabled crosslinking not only stabilizes the
nanoparticles at the body's pH, but also creates a molecular
network that will fall apart when exposed to the high levels of
glutathione, a biomolecule found inside cancer cells. The
research