Nanotechnology Points Way to Overcoming Resistance to Chemo-Immunotherapy

Chemo-immunotherapy, which combines chemotherapy with immunotherapy, is considered the most advanced standard of care for various types of cancer. While chemotherapy destroys cancer cells, immunotherapy encourages the cells of the immune system to identify and attack the remaining cancer cells.

However, many patients fail to respond to chemo-immunotherapy, which means that the treatment is not sufficiently targeted. This was the first time that the feasibility was shown of a drug delivery system based on lipid nanoparticles that release their load only at the specifically targeted cells.

“In our system a single nanoparticle is capable of operating in two different arenas,” explains TAU Vice President for R&D Prof. Dan Peer. “It increases the sensitivity of cancer cells resistant to chemotherapy, while also reinvigorating immune cells and increasing their sensitivity to cancer cells. Thus, with one precisely targeted nanoparticle we provide two different treatments, at very different sites. We tested this system in two types of lab models – one for metastasized melanoma, and the other for a local solid tumor. In both populations we observed positive effects of our delivery system.” While acknowledging that “this is only an initial study, it has enormous potential in the ongoing fight against cancer,” said Peer.