DNA-barcode Labeled Nanoparticles Trace Drug Susceptibility

Novel DNA-barcoded nanoparticles loaded with anti-cancer drugs were used to screen for susceptibility at the cellular level as a first step in the development of personalized cancer therapy.

Personalized medicine promises to revolutionize cancer therapy by matching the most effective treatment to the individual patient. To further progress in this regard, investigators at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology (Haifa, Israel) employed a nanoparticle-based system to predict the therapeutic potency of anticancer medicines in a personalized manner.

The diagnostic stage – carried out in mice bearing triple-negative breast-cancer tumors - was carried out by using a multidrug screen performed inside the tumor, which extracted drug activity information with single cell sensitivity. By using 100 nanometer liposomes, loaded with various cancer drugs and corresponding synthetic DNA barcodes, the investigators found a correlation between the cell viability and the drug it was exposed to, according to the matching barcodes. Use of placebo nanoparticles that carried DNA barcodes but no drugs demonstrated the specificity of the system.

The investigators reported in the November 10, 2016, online edition of the journal Nature Communications that DNA barcodes enabled the tracking of drugs that entered each tumor cell and demonstrated their potency more precisely. Using this method, the investigators were able to advise an efficient, personalized therapeutic protocol within less than 72 hours.

“The medical world is now moving towards personalized medicine, but treatments tailored only according to the patient’s genetic characteristics do not always grant an accurate prediction of which medicine will be best for each patient,” said senior author Dr. Avi Schroeder, professor of chemical engineering at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology. “We, however, have developed a technology that complements this field. It is a bit like testing for allergies, where simple tests provide us with a specific person’s allergy profile. Here we developed a simple test that provides us with a profile of the patient’s response to the designated drug. This method makes it possible to test the effectiveness of several drugs concurrently in the patient’s tumor, in minute doses not felt by the patient, and which do not pose any danger to him or her. Based on the test results, the most effective drug for the specific patient is selected.”

“This technology provides a new window into fundamental insights about the mechanisms of cancer and resistances to various drugs,” said Dr. Schroeder, “but my thoughts are also practical: how our research could help people. Therefore, I am thrilled by the current success. It will take a lot more work to turn our development into a product that is available to the public, but I believe we will see it at the clinic within a few years.”

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Technion-Israel Institute of Technology