The nanoparticle is made of a biodegradable polymer that is loaded with two prodrugs that target cancer cells’ mitochondrial DNA, according to a May 6 article on the university’s website. One is a modified form of common chemotherapy drug cisplatin. The second is a drug researchers developed in the lab known as Mito-DCA.
In preclinical trials, the drug-loaded nanoparticle shrunk both breast tumors and breast cancer cells in the brain. The research was published May 6 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Researchers said they are still working to understand how these nanoparticles cross the blood-brain barrier and that more preclinical research is needed.
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