This study demonstrates a novel approach to delivering therapeutic agents to brain tumors using a thermally responsive biopolymer. The method involves the use of infrared light to enhance the permeability of tumor vasculature, facilitating targeted drug delivery.
Begin with an anesthetized rat bearing a brain tumor composed of proliferating tumor cells.
Expose the rat’s skull and create a hole to reveal the brain region with the tumor.
Take a thermally responsive biopolymer fused with a cell-penetrating peptide and an inhibitor of c-myc, an oncogenic protein.
Inject the biopolymer into the femoral vein of the hind limb for delivery to the brain.
Apply infrared light through the skull hole to heat the tumor site, which induces biopolymer aggregation along the tumor vasculature and increases vessel permeability.
Cooling the site dissolves the aggregates, allowing the biopolymer to leak through the permeable vessel walls.
Subsequent reheating triggers reaggregation to trap the biopolymer within the tumor.
Add an anesthetic solution and suture to close the incision.
The tumor cells endocytose the aggregates, which escape into the cytoplasm and inhibit c-myc, thereby arresting cell cycle progression and suppressing tumor proliferation.
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