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DARPin_9-29-Targeted Gold Nanorods Selectively Suppress HER2-Positive Tumor Growth in Mice
Breast cancer is one of the most common cancer among women. According to the WHO, in 2020, over 2.2 million cases of this disease were registered worldwide. High level of HER2, a tyrosine kinase receptor, is associated with a more aggressive clinical behavior and poor prognosis for breast cancer patients.
A team of scientists from the Laboratory of molecular immunology of the IBCH RAS in collaboration with colleagues from Prokhorov General Physics Institute and Tel Aviv University developed innovative functional nano-biomaterials for selective photothermal therapy of HER2-positive breast cancers. It was demonstrated that gold nanorods (GNRs) stabilized with bovine serum albumin (BSA) and chemically conjugated to targeted vehicle specific to HER2 can be used for near infrared ablation of HER2-positive cancer in animal model. Stabilization of GNR with BSA leads to increase tumor uptake 16-fold in compare to naked GNR. As a result, photothermal therapy of HER2-positive tumor-bearing mice with HER2-specific BSA-stabilized GNRs leads to increase tumor growth inhibition coefficient in 2.5-fold compared to naked HER2-specific GNRs. Results are published in Cancers.
Figure 1. Gold nanorods stabilized with BSA and conjugated with the HER2-specific DARPin for photothermal therapy of HER2-positive tumor-bearing mice.
november 8, 2021