Development of a magnetic guidance strategy for improving the trafficking of cellular therapies into tumours

开发磁性引导策略以改善细胞疗法进入肿瘤的运输

• 批准号: G0902317/1
• 负责人: Munitta Muthana
• 金额: $ 12.72万
• 依托单位: University of Sheffield
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2011
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2011 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=G0902317%2F1
• 关键词: Development; magnetic; guidance; strategy; improving

Many current cancer treatments are limited by the failure to penetrate deep into the tumour. Monocytes and macrophages are specialist white blood cells which have been shown to enter tumours in large numbers often settling in these areas that are difficult to treat. Scientists have shown that these cells have the ability to kill tumour cells in the laboratory when they are stimulated with anticancer agents. This led doctors to remove these cells from cancer patients, stimulate them in the laboratory and reintroduce them back into the patients in an attempt to reduce cancer growth. While this method proved to be very safe, the signs of success were very small, mainly due to few monocytes/macrophages reaching the cancer. Now, a new magnetic targeting method has been developed in our laboratory to overcome this problem. This involves inserting tiny magnets into monocytes and injecting the ?magnetic cells? into the bloodstream. We have found if a small powerful magnet is then placed over the tumour to create a magnetic field this attracted many more monocytes into the tumour. The monocytes were found deep in the tumour in the areas which are difficult to access using current therapies like radiotherapy or chemotherapy. One of the advantages of this approach is that the magnet ensures delivery to only the tumour thus preventing damage to healthy organs. In our previous studies we used superficial tumours (under the skin) these were easy to locate and a small magnet was then placed on the surface of the skin. We now want to use magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), a technique widely applied in the clinic, to help guide our magnetic cells into cancers that are found deep in the body like metastasis. We then want to use this to deliver a number of anticancer agents that prevent tumour growth and metastasis as well as agents that directly kill the tumour. A discipline hopping grant will bring together two different areas of science, oncology and magnetic resonance physics, the combination of which is hoped to provide a valuable method where magnetic cells are forced into tumours in significantly greater numbers to attack the cancer. This new magnetic targeting approach could herald a new era in cancer treatment - one in which delivery of anti-cancer therapy to the diseased site is a great deal more effective.

目前许多癌症治疗方法都因无法深入肿瘤而受到限制。单核细胞和巨噬细胞是特殊的白细胞，已被证明可以大量进入肿瘤，通常定居在难以治疗的这些区域。科学家们已经证明，这些细胞在受到抗癌药物刺激时能够在实验室中杀死肿瘤细胞。这导致医生从癌症患者身上取出这些细胞，在实验室中刺激它们，然后将它们重新引入患者体内，试图减少癌症的生长。虽然这种方法被证明非常安全，但成功的迹象非常小，主要是因为到达癌症的单核细胞/巨噬细胞很少。现在，我们实验室开发了一种新的磁靶向方法来克服这个问题。这涉及将微小磁铁插入单核细胞并注射“磁性细胞”。进入血液。我们发现，如果将一个小的强力磁铁放在肿瘤上以产生磁场，就会吸引更多的单核细胞进入肿瘤。在肿瘤深处发现了单核细胞，这些区域是使用目前的放疗或化疗等疗法难以到达的区域。这种方法的优点之一是磁体确保仅输送到肿瘤，从而防止对健康器官的损害。在我们之前的研究中，我们使用了浅表肿瘤（皮肤下），这些肿瘤很容易定位，然后将一块小磁铁放在皮肤表面上。我们现在希望使用磁共振成像（MRI）这种在临床上广泛应用的技术来帮助引导我们的磁性细胞进入身体深处发现的癌症，如转移瘤。然后，我们希望利用它来提供许多预防肿瘤生长和转移的抗癌药物以及直接杀死肿瘤的药物。一项跨学科资助将把肿瘤学和磁共振物理学这两个不同的科学领域结合在一起，希望这两者的结合能够提供一种有价值的方法，使磁性细胞被迫大量进入肿瘤以攻击癌症。这种新的磁性靶向方法可能预示着癌症治疗的新时代——在这个时代，向患病部位提供抗癌治疗会更加有效。