BioCentury
ARTICLE | Distillery Techniques

Drug delivery

November 15, 2016 5:44 PM UTC

An HspA5-targeting AAVP could be used to deliver gene therapies for aggressive breast cancer. The particle consisted of an AAVP particle engineered to express a peptide that binds HspA5, a protein highly expressed on aggressive breast tumors. In an orthotopic xenograft mouse model of aggressive breast cancer, fluorescent imaging showed the particle labeled with a near-infrared (NIR) fluorescent dye accumulated at threefold higher levels in tumors than in normal tissues. Also in the model, the particles encoding herpes simplex virus thymidine kinase (HSVtk), under the control of a cytomegalovirus (CMV) or human HspA5, plus ganciclovir decreased tumor growth compared with untargeted particles encoding HSVtk. Next steps could include using the HspA5-targeting particle to deliver other gene therapies for aggressive breast cancer...