Sticking point: Bio-adhesive nanoparticles may improve ability to deliver drugs to the brain

Researchers from Yale have found that changes to the surface properties of drug-loaded nanoparticles may improve specificity of drug delivery. The study was recently published in Nature Communications.

In their research, the team examined how nanoparticles interacted with cells within the brain in rat models. Two groups of rats were evaluated, one group had brain tumours and the other had healthy brains.

When the team looked at nanoparticles with different surface chemistries, they found that the surface chemistry was integral to the uptake of the drug in brain cells. In those nanoparticles with ‘stealth’ properties (a polymer coating to enable brain penetration) internalisation by all cell types was avoided. To counter-balance this, the team functionalised the particles with bio-adhesive (‘sticky’) end groups.

Although the functionalised, bio-adhesive nanoparticles were probably internalised by all cells, it was found that tumour cells internalised them at a high rate.

It was concluded that surface properties of nanoparticles have a significant impact on the ability to control the distribution of drugs. “Altogether, these results highlight the potential to optimise nanoparticle-based therapeutic strategies by tuning nanoparticle surface properties for enhanced delivery to certain cell types of interest and development of specific features, offering the possibility to hone the choice of the nanocarrier to each specific therapeutic molecule,” wrote the study authors.

The study lead author was W. Mark Saltzman, the Goizueta Foundation Professor of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering, professor of cellular and molecular physiology, and a member of the Yale Cancer Center.