News U1

NANBIOSIS Scientists discover a promising effective alternative to reduse relapse rates in Diffuse Large B-cell Lymphoma Cells

Researchers of NANBIOSIS-ICTS Units from CIBER-BBN: U1 Protein Production Platform (PPP) at IBB-UAB, led by Antoni Villaverde and Unit 18 Nanotoxicology Unit at IBB-Hospital Sant Pau, led by Ramón Mangues, have demonstrated a potent T22-PE24-H6 antineoplastic effect, especially in blocking dissemination in a CXCR4⁺ DLBCL model without associated toxicity. Thereby, T22-PE24-H6 promises to become an effective alternative to treat CXCR4⁺ disseminated refractory or relapsed DLBCL patients.

Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) is a cancer of B cells, a type of lymphocyte that is responsible for producing antibodies. It is the most common form of non-Hodgkin lymphoma among adults, with an annual incidence of 7–8 cases per 100,000 people per year in the US and UK.

One of the major problems in the therapeutic strategies is the relapse rates. CXCR4-overexpressing cancer cells are good targets for therapy because of their association with dissemination and relapse in R-CHOP treated DLBCL patients but show a narrow therapeutic index due to their systemic toxicity wich generate the induction of severe side effects. NANBIOSIS researchers have developed a therapeutic nanostructured protein T22-PE24-H6 that incorporates exotoxin A from Pseudomonas aeruginosa, which selectively targets lymphoma cells because of its specific interaction with a highly overexpressed CXCR4 receptor (CXCR4⁺) in DLBCL, demonstrating a potent T22-PE24-H6 antineoplastic effect, without associated toxicity. Thereby, T22-PE24-H6 promises to become an effective alternative to treat CXCR4⁺ disseminated refractory or relapsed DLBCL patients

The bioluminescent follow-up of cancer cells and toxicity studies has been performed in the ICTS Nanbiosis Platform, using its CIBER-BBN Nanotoxicology Unit and Protein production has been performed by the ICTS “NANBIOSIS”, more specifically by the Protein Production Platform of CIBER-BBN/ IBB

Article of reference:

Falgàs A, Pallarès V, Serna N, Sánchez-García L, Sierra J, Gallardo A, Alba-Castellón L, Álamo P, Unzueta U, Villaverde A, Vázquez E, Mangues R, Casanova I. Selective delivery of T22-PE24-H6 to CXCR4⁺ diffuse large B-cell lymphoma cells leads to wide therapeutic index in a disseminated mouse model. Theranostics 2020; 10(12):5169-5180. doi:10.7150/thno.43231. Available from http://www.thno.org/v10p5169.htm

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Rare diseases Day February 29: combating Fabry Disease

29 of February is a ‘rare’ date and February, a month with a ‘rare’ number of days, has become a month to raise awareness about rare diseases and their impact on patients’ lives. Since 2008 thousands of events happen every year all around the world and around the last day of February.

NanoMed Spain Platform and the Hospital of Sant Joan de Déu have organized the NanoRareDiseaseDay to present the latest innovations in the field of Nanomedicine for the treatment and diagnosis of rare diseases (diseases affecting less than 5 people per 10,000 inhabitants). Nora Ventosa, Scientific Director of NANBIOSIS U6 Biomaterial Processing and Nanostructuring Unit (CIBER-BBN / ICMAB-CSIC) presented Smart4Fabry a European project with the aim of reducing the Fabry disease treatment cost and improve the life-quality of Fabry disease patients

Fabry disease is one of the rare diseases that currently lack a definitive cure. It is cause by lysosomal storage disorders (LSDs): the deficiency of α-Galactosidase A (GLA) enzyme activity result in the cellular accumulation of neutral glycosphingolipids, leading to widespread vasculopathy with particular detriment to the kidneys, heart and central nervous system.

Smart-4-Fabry has been conceived to obtain a new nanoformulation of GLA, that will improve the efficacy and toleration compared to the actual treatment with non-formulated GLA. Four units of NANBIOSIS participate in the project:

– U1 Protein Production Platform (PPP) led by Neus Ferrer and Antony Villaverde at IBB-UAB accomplish the production and purification in different expression systems for R&D purposes.

– U3 Synthesis of Peptides Unit led by Miriam Royo at IQAC-CSIC performs all the chemical process of the Smart-4-Fabry project, i.e. design and synthesis of peptides used as targeting ligands in the nanoliposome formulation

– U6 Biomaterial Processing and Nanostructuring Unit led by Nora Ventosa and Jaume Veciana at ICMAB-CSIC undertakes tasks related to the manufacture of the nanoliposome formulation of GLA enzyme and the physico-chemical characterization (this unit counts with plants at different scales, from mL to L, which allow process development by QbD and process scale-up, as well as instrumental techniques for assessment of particle size distribution, particle concentration, particle morphology and stability, and Z-potential)

– U20 In Vivo Experimental Platform led by Simó Schwartz and Ibane Abásolo at VHIR to carry out the non-GLP preclinical assays of the project (in vivo efficacy, biodistribution and tolerance/toxicity assays).

For further information about Fabry disease and the Smart4Fabry project: here

Nora Ventosa explaining the progress of the smart4fabry
project on nanoliposomes development for the treatment of Fabry disease
(Pictures by Nanomed Spain)

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A new smart drug that finds and kills metastasis cells could be applied in 23 types of cancer

Researchers of two CIBER-BBN Units of the ICTS NANBIOSIS U18 Nanotoxicology Unit at Hospital Sant Pau. and U1, Protein Production Platform (PPP), at the Institute of Biotechnology and biomedicine of the Autonomous University of Barcelona (IBB–UAB), led by Prof Ramón Mangues, have developed a new drug that selectively removes metastatic stem cells, inducing a powerful metastasis prevention effect.

Besides the participation of the “NANBIOSIS” ICTS Units
U1 Protein Production Platform where Protein production was partially performed and U18 Nantoxicology Unit where Biodistribution studies were performed, all in vivo experiments were performed by the Unit 20 In Vivo Experimental Platform of CIBER in Bioengineering, Biomaterials & Nanomedicine (CIBER-BBN)

The researchers have ceated inclusion bodies of amyloid and nanostructured fibers that, when administered subcutaneously in mice, release soluble cytotoxic nanoparticles continuously. These nanoparticles are carriers of the exotoxin of Pseudomonas aeruginosa that manages to maintain a stable concentration of this nanomedicine in the blood and tissues. Dr. Mangues explains that “this new pharmaceutical form of subcutaneous administration for sustained release allows high doses of this nanopharmaceutical to be administered, at prolonged intervals (weeks in mice and probably months in humans) without toxicity at the injection site or in normal tissues, while generating a powerful antimetastatic effect. Apart from being controlled-release systems, these nanoparticles incorporate a ligand that interacts with the receptor (CXCR4), present at high levels in the membrane of metastatic stem cells capable of generating metastases (CMM CXCR4 +). Once the new pharmaceutical form is administered subcutaneously in mice with metastatic colorectal cancer, this ligand directs each nanoparticle released by this structure to the tumor tissues, increasing their uptake, to specifically internalize in the CXCR4 + CMMs and induce their selective destruction. “This effect achieves a notable reduction in tumor size in the colon while blocking the development of lymph node, lung, liver and peritoneal metastases, without appreciable uptake or toxicity in non-tumor tissues” continous the researchers.

The researchers estimate that this new therapeutic strategy will have a high clinical impact by reducing the requirement of its hospital administration, which most antitumor drugs have, and blocking metastatic dissemination, responding to an unmet clinical need. On the other hand, this new pharmaceutical form, which combines sustained release with targeting to the CXCR4 receptor, could be used in the treatment of at least 23 types of cancer that also express high levels of this receptor in tumor cells.

The new therapy offers an answer to the urgent medical need to inhibit the development of metastases, which represents the leading cause of death in cancer patients. The selective destruction of tumor and metastatic cells increases the therapeutic index of nanomedicine, obtaining a potent antimetastatic effect without generating associated adverse effects, which differentiates it from most of the currently used antitumor drugs.

Article of reference

María Virtudes Céspedes, Olivia Cano‐Garrido, Patricia Álamo, Rita Sala, Alberto Gallardo, Naroa Serna, Aïda Falgàs, Eric Voltà‐Durán, Isolda Casanova, Alejandro Sánchez‐Chardi, Hèctor López‐Laguna, Laura Sánchez‐García, Julieta M. Sánchez, Ugutz Unzueta, Esther Vázquez, Ramón Mangues, Antonio Villaverde. Engineering Secretory Amyloids for Remote and Highly Selective Destruction of Metastatic Foci Adv.Mater.2019, 1907348

https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.201907348

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NANBIOSIS research to fight cancer

Twenty years ago, the 4 February was declared World Cancer Day with the global challenge of cancer would not be forgotten. Since then, huge progress has been made to understand, prevent, diagnose, and treat cancer.

NANBIOSIS as an ICTS (Singular Scientific and Technical infrastructures) for biomedical research plays a very important role in the fight against cancer. Some examples of the work carried out during the last year, are bellow:

Unit 20 of NANBIOSIS at VHIR, works in several proyects reletaed to cancer as H2020-NoCanTher: magnetic nanoparticles against pancreatic cancer through the use of hyperthermia combined with conventional treatment. H2020-Target-4-Cancer: nanotherapy based on polymeric micelles directed against specific receptors of tumor stem cells in colorectal cancer. H2020-DiamStar: nanodiamonds directed against leukemia for the potentiation of chemotherapy. FET-OPEN EvoNano: in silico and tumor-tumor models for the prediction of PK / PD and tumor efficacy of antitumor nanomedicines against tumor stem cells.

The activities of U1 of Protein Production Platform (PPP) are also strongly committed with several projects devoted to develop new, more selective and more efficient antitumoral drugs, with antimetastatic effects.
oordinated action between units U1 of Protein Production Platform (PPP),
U18 of Nanotoxicology and U29 of Nucleic Acid Synthesis, shows promising results in development of nanopharmaceuticals with a high degree of efficacy for the treatment of metastases in colon cancer

Unit 6 of NANBIOSIS Biomaterial Processing and Nanostructuring Unit is also working on a joined initiative between CIBER-BBN and CIBER-ONC to improve the current ex vivo immune cell expansion systems to help introduce immunotherapies such as the adoptive cell therapies, which have shown complete remissions of terminal cancer patients, to the clinics overcoming the limitation of having enough therapeutic cells with novel Nanobiomaterials. Researchers of Unit 6 and researchers of Laboratory of Translational Research in Child and Adolescent Cancer from the Vall d’Hebron Research Institute (VHIR), are working on a project financed by the Spanish Government and CIBER-BBN, for the development of a new nanomedicine for the treatment of high-risk neuroblastoma, one of the most frequent childhood cancers.

In our unit U26. NMR: Biomedical Applications II, several studies for cancer biomarker discovery are being carried out. NMR studies on biofluids for the design of novel strategies for diagnosis support, easily transferable into the clinical practice, are being developed in biofluids in the context of cancer. Urine is one of the most easily obtainable biofluid and is a non-invasive source of biomarkers. Among these studies, we can mention the good discrimination achieved between urine from bladder cancer patients before surgery (cancer) and urine after surgery (free of cancer) and in the follow up of the disease, to monitor relapses

Some of the results of these researchs have been published in scientific magazines of high impact as for exemple;

Integrative Metabolomic and Transcriptomic Analysis for the Study of Bladder Cancer Alba Loras, Cristian Suárez-Cabrera, M. Carmen Martínez-Bisbal, Guillermo Quintás , Jesús M. Paramio, Ramón Martínez-Máñez,
Salvador Gil and José Luis Ruiz-Cerdá. Cancers 2019, 11, 686; doi:10.3390/cancers11050686

Nanostructured toxins for the selective destruction of drug-resistant human CXCR4⁺ colorectal cancer stem cells Naroa Serna, Patricia Álamo, Prashanthi Rameshef, Daria Vinokurovaef, LauraSánchez-García, Ugutz Unzueta, Alberto Gallardo, María Virtudes Céspedes, Esther Vázquez, Antonio Villaverde, Ramón Mangues, Jan Paul Medema. . Journal of Controlled Release. Volume 320, 96-104, 2020 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jconrel.2020.01.019

Controlling self-assembling and tumor cell-targeting of protein-only nanoparticles through modular protein engineering Voltà-Durán, E., Cano-Garrido, O., Serna, N. et al. C. Sci. China Mater.63, 147–156 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40843-019-9582-9

Engineering Secretory Amyloids for Remote and Highly Selective Destruction of Metastatic Foci, María Virtudes Céspedes Olivia Cano‐Garrido Patricia Álamo Rita Sala Alberto Gallardo Naroa Serna Aïda Falgàs Eric Voltà‐Durán Isolda Casanova Alejandro Sánchez‐Chardi Hèctor López‐Laguna Laura Sánchez‐García Julieta M. Sánchez Ugutz Unzueta Esther Vázquez Ramón Mangues Antonio Villaverde . Advanced Materiasls Número de artículo: 1907348 , Dec. 2019 https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.201907348

Artificial Inclusion Bodies for Clinical Development Julieta M. Sánchez Hèctor López‐Laguna Patricia Álamo Naroa Serna Alejandro Sánchez‐Chardi Verónica Nolan Olivia Cano‐Garrido Isolda Casanova Ugutz Unzueta Esther Vazquez Ramon Mangues Antonio Villaverde, Advanced Science. 2019 https://doi.org/10.1002/advs.201902420

Nanostructured Nucleolin-Binding Peptide for Intracellular Drug Delivery in Triple-Negative Breast Cancer Stem Cells Mireia Pesarrodona, Laura Sánchez-García, Joaquin Seras-Franzoso, Alejandro Sánchez-Chardi, Ricardo Baltá-Foix, Patricia Cámara-Sánchez, Petra Gener, José Juan Jara, Daniel Pulido, Naroa Serna, Simó Schwartz Jr. Miriam Royo, Antonio Villaverde, Ibane Abasolo, Esther Vazquez ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces DOI: 10.1021/acsami.9b15803

Nanostructure Empowers Active Tumor Targeting in Ligand‐Based Molecular Delivery López‐Laguna, H., Sala, R., Sánchez, J. M., Álamo, P., Unzueta, U., Sánchez‐Chardi, A., Serna, N., Sánchez‐García, L., Voltà‐Durán, E., Mangues, R., Villaverde, A., Vázquez, E., . Part. Part. Syst. Charact. 2019, 36, 1900304. https://doi.org/10.1002/ppsc.201900304

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A step forward for the design of multifunctional protein nanomaterials for cancer therapies

Researchers of NANBIOSIS Unit 1 and NANBIOSIS Unit 18, led by Prof Antoni Villaverde have published the article at the prestigious scintific magazine titled Collaborative membrane activity and receptor-dependent tumor cell targeting for precise nanoparticle delivery in CXCR4+ colorectal cancer

The researchers have shown that the combination of cell-penetrating and tumor cell-targeting peptides dramatically enhances precise tumor accumulation of protein-only nanoparticles intended for selective drug delivery, in mouse models of human colorectal cancer. This fact is a step forward for the rational design of multifunctional protein nanomaterials for improved cancer therapies.

Protein production has been partially performed by the ICTS NANBIOSIS U1, Protein Production Platform and the nanoparticle size analysis by the U6 of NANBIOSIS Biomaterial Processing and Nanostructuring Unit. Biodistribution studies were performed by the U18 of the ICTS NANBIOSIS, Nanotoxicology Unit.

Article of reference:

Rita Sala, LauraSánchez-García, Naroa Serna, María Virtudes Céspedes, Isolda Casanova, Mònica Roldán, Alejandro Sánchez Chardig, Ugutz Unzueta, Esther Vázquez, Ramón Mangues, Antonio Villaverde. Collaborative membrane activity and receptor-dependent tumor cell targeting for precise nanoparticle delivery in CXCR4+ colorectal cancer. Acta Biomaterialia, 99, Pages 426-432. 2019,

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Why the poor biodistribution so far reached by tumor-targeted medicines?

Cell-selective targeting is expected to enhance effectiveness and minimize side effects of cytotoxic agents. Functionalization of drugs or drug nanoconjugates with specific cell ligands allows receptor-mediated selective cell delivery. However, it is unclear whether the incorporation of an efficient ligand into a drug vehicle is sufficient to ensure proper biodistribution upon systemic administration, and also at which extent biophysical properties of the vehicle may contribute to the accumulation in target tissues during active targeting. To approach this issue, structural robustness of self-assembling, protein-only nanoparticles targeted to the tumoral marker CXCR4 is compromised by reducing the number of histidine residues (from six to five) in a histidine-based architectonic tag. Thus, the structure of the resulting nanoparticles, but not of building blocks, is weakened. Upon intravenous injection in animal models of human CXCR4+ colorectal cancer, the administered material loses the ability to accumulate in tumor tissue, where it is only transiently found. It instead deposits in kidney and liver. Therefore, precise cell-targeted delivery requires not only the incorporation of a proper ligand that promotes receptor-mediated internalization, but also, unexpectedly, its maintenance of a stable multimeric nanostructure that ensures high ligand exposure and long residence time in tumor tissue.

The concept presented by the authors of the present research might represent a convincing explanation of the poor biodistribution so far reached by tumor-targeted medicines, including antibody-drug conjugates. In addition to this, they offer a potential developmental roadmap for the improvement of these drugs, of high intrinsic therapeutic potential, to reach satisfactory efficiencies in the clinical context.

Hèctor López-Laguna, Rita Sala, Julieta M. Sánchez, Patricia Álamo, Ugutz Unzueta, Alejandro Sánchez-Chardi, Naroa Serna, Laura Sánchez-García, Eric Voltà-Durán, Ramón Mangues, Antonio Villaverde and Esther Vázquez. Nanostructure Empowers Active Tumor Targeting in Ligand-Based Molecular Delivery. Part. Part. Syst. Charact. 2019.

DOI: 10.1002/ppsc.201900304

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Artificial inclusion bodies for controlled drug release

Researchers from NANBIOSIS-CIBER-BBN have developed a new type of protein biomaterial that allows a continuous release over time of therapeutic proteins when administered subcutaneously in laboratory animals.

These results are the result of the stable scientific collaboration between the researchers of NANBIOSIS Units 1 Protein Production Platform (PPP)and 18 Nanotoxicology Unit, led by Toni Villaverde and Ramón Mangues at the Institute of Biotechnology and Biomedicine of the Autonomous University of Barcelona (IBB-UAB) and the Institut About the Hospital de Sant Pau and has had the participation of the Institute of Biological and Technological Research of the National University of Córdoba-CONICET, in Argentina

“These structures, of a few micrometers in diameter, contain functional proteins that are released in a manner similar to the release of human hormones in the endocrine system,” says Antonio Villaverde. Ramón Mangues explains that “the new biomaterial mimics a common bacterial product in biotechnological processes called ‘inclusion bodies’, of pharmacological interest, which in this artificial version offers a wide range of therapeutic possibilities in the field of oncology and in any other field clinic that requires sustained release over time.” Researchers have used common enzymes in biotechnology as a model and a nanostructured bacterial toxin that targets metastatic cells of human colorectal cancer, which has been tested in animal models. “In this way we have managed to generate both immobilized catalysts and a new long-acting anti-tumor drug,” said the researchers responsible for the research.

The developed artificial protein granules, which had previously been proposed as ‘nanopills’ (tablets of therapeutic material on a nanoscopic scale), mimic bacterial inclusion bodies and offer enormous clinical potential in the field of vaccinology and as release systems Drug controlled.

“We have seen that natural inclusion bodies, administered as medicines, can generate unwanted immune responses due to the inevitable contamination with bacterial materials,” the researchers comment. However, in the new work, the development of artificial inclusion bodies with secretion capacity “avoids many of the regulatory problems associated with the potential development of bacterial nanopills, and offers a cross platform for obtaining functional components in cosmetics and in clinic” they add.

This work points to artificial inclusion bodies as a new exploitable category of biomaterials for biotechnological applications with a more simple manufacturing and clinical applications.

Reference article:
Julieta M. Sánchez, Hèctor López ‐ Laguna, Patricia Álamo, Naroa Serna, Alejandro Sánchez ‐ Chardi, Verónica Nolan, Olivia Cano ‐ Garrido, Isolda Casanova, Ugutz Unzueta, Esther Vazquez, Ramon Mangues, Antonio Villaverde Artificial Inclusion Bodies for Clinical Development

https: //doi.org/10.1002/advs.201902420

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A new method simple and efficient for the preparation of Oligonucleotide-protein conjugates

Oligonucleotide-protein conjugates have important applications in biomedicine. Four units of NANBIOSIS have collaborated to come across with more simple and efficient methods for the preparation of these conjugates.

In the publication of the research results, a new method is described in which a bifunctional linker is attached to thiol-oligonucleotide to generate a reactive intermediate that is used to link to the protein. Having similar conjugation efficacy compared with the classical method in which the bifunctional linker is attached first to the protein, this new approach produces significantly more active conjugates with higher batch to batch reproducibility. In a second approach, direct conjugation is proposed using oligonucleotides carrying carboxyl groups. These methodologies have been applied to prepare nanoconjugates of an engineered nanoparticle protein carrying a T22 peptide with affinity for the CXCR4 chemokine receptor and oligomers of the antiproliferative nucleotide 2′-deoxy-5-fluorouridine in a very efficient way. The protocols have potential uses for the functionalization of proteins, amino-containing polymers or amino-lipids in order to produce complex therapeutic nucleic acid delivery systems.

Protein production and DLS have been partially performed by the NANBIOSIS Units of CIBER-BBN U1 Protein Production Platform (PPP) at IBB-UAB and U6 Biomaterial Processing and Nanostructuring Unit of CIBER-BBN and ICMAB-CSIC. Also, NANBIOSIS U18 of Nanotoxicology at the Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau has been used and the team of researcher counted with the NANBIOSIS expertise of U29 Oligonucleotide Synthesis Platform (OSP) at IQAC-CSIC

Article of reference:

Avino, Anna; Unzueta, Ugutz; Cespedes, Maria Virtudes; Casanova, Isolda; Vazquez, Esther; Villaverde, Antonio; Mangues, Ramon; Eritja, Ramon. Efficient bioactive oligonucleotide-protein conjugation for cell-targeted cancer therapy. CHEMISTRYOPEN 8, 3 (382-387), 2019

https://doi.org/10.1002/open.201900038

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A CXCR4-targeted nanocarrier achieves highly selective tumor uptake in diffuse large B-cell lymphoma mouse models

Researchers of NANBIOSIS Unit 1 and NANBIOSIS Unit 18, led by Ramón Mangues, have published the article titled CXCR4-targeted nanocarrier achieves highly selective tumor uptake in diffuse large B-cell lymphoma mouse models .

One-third of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma patients are refractory to initial treatment or relapse after rituximab plus cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine and prednisone chemotherapy. In these patients, CXCR4 overexpression (CXCR4+) associates with lower overall and disease-free survival. Nanomedicine pursues active targeting to selectively deliver antitumor agents to cancer cells, a novel approach that promises to revolutionize therapy by dramatically increasing drug concentration in target tumor cells. In the study carried out at NANBIOSIS ICTS the resarchers intravenously administered a liganded protein nanocarrier (T22-GFP-H6) targeting CXCR4+ lymphoma cells in mouse models to assess its selectivity as a nanocarrier, by measuring its tissue biodistribution in cancer and normal cells. No previous protein-based nanocarrier has been described to specifically target lymphoma cells. T22-GFP-H6 achieved a highly selective tumor uptake in a CXCR4+ lymphoma subcutaneous model, as detected by fluorescent emission. We demonstrated that tumor uptake was CXCR4- dependent because pretreatment with AMD3100, a CXCR4 antagonist, significantly reduced tumor uptake. Moreover, in contrast to CXCR4+ subcutaneous models, CXCR4- tumors did not accumulate the nanocarrier. Most importantly, after intravenous injection in a disseminated model, the nanocarrier accumulated and internalized in all clinically relevant organs affected by lymphoma cells, with negligible distribution to unaffected tissues. Finally, the researchers obtained antitumor effect without toxicity in a CXCR4+ lymphoma model by T22-DITOX-H6 administration, a nanoparticle incorporating a toxin with the same structure as the nanocarrier. Hence, the use of T22-GFP-H6 nanocarrier could be a good strategy to load and deliver drugs or toxins to treat specifically CXCR4-mediated refractory or relapsed diffuse large B-cell lymphoma without systemic toxicity.

The bioluminescent follow-up of cancer cells and nanoparticle biodistribution and toxicity studies has been performed in the ICTS NANBIOSIS, using its unit 18 of Nanotechnology of CIBER-BBN and Hospital Sant Pau The Protein production has been partially performed by the Protein Production Platform (PPP) Unit 1 of ICTS NANBIOSIS of CIBER-BBN and IBB-UAB.

Article of reference:

Aïda Falgàs, Victor Pallarès, Ugutz Unzueta, María Virtudes Céspedes, Irene Arroyo-Solera, María José Moreno, Alberto Gallardo, María Antonia Mangues, Jorge Sierra, Antonio Villaverde, Esther Vázquez, Ramon Mangues, and Isolda Casanova. A CXCR4-targeted nanocarrier achieves highly selective tumor uptake in diffuse large B-cell lymphoma mouse models. Haematologica 2019

doi:10.3324/haematol.2018.211490

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Non-Hodgkin lymphoma treatment with protein nanoparticles

A study result of collaboration between researchers of two NANBIOSIS units managed to produce a potent antitumor effect in an animal model with non-Hodgkin lymphoma

A non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, NHL is a cancer that starts in white blood cells called lymphocytes, which are part of the body’s immune system.
Lymphoma. NHL is a term that’s used for many different types of lymphoma that share some characteristics. The most prevalent type of non-Hodgkin lymphoma is called diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (LDCGB). Although there are treatments for this pathology, there are non-responders.

This nanoparticle can be developed as a nanopharmaceutical, in order to introduce a new treatment, which could be used in 40 percent of patients with non-Hodgkin lymphoma who do not respond to current therapy, and avoiding the adverse effects associated with conventional treatment.

The research conducted by the CIBER-BBN at the Hospital de Sant Pau, led by Ramón Mangues (Nanbiosis U18 Nanotoxicology Unit) and the Autonomous University of Barcelona, led by Antoni Villaverde Nanbiosis U1 Protein Production Platform (PPP) has demonstrated the high selectivity of a protein-based nanomedicine and created by the researchers themselves, for the targeted delivery of a toxin in the tumor cells to induce their selective death. The objective is that these nanoparticles can be developed as a nanopharmaceutical, which could be used in 40 percent of patients with non-Hodgkin lymphoma who do not respond to current therapy, avoiding the adverse effects associated with conventional treatment

This selective effect of the nanopharmaceutical is due to the specific interaction between a targeting peptide that contains the protein nanoparticle that carries the toxin and the CXCR4 cell receptor that is highly overexpressed in lymphoma cells. This is the first time that the uptake of protein nanoparticles in different organs of a hematological neoplasm is quantified.

This observation has shown that 86 percent of the administered dose accumulates in cancer cells, a substantial improvement compared to other non-protein nanoparticles or other drug targeting systems such as drug-antibody conjugates, which only reach 1 percent of the dose in the tumor.

As Ramón Mangues, Scientific Director of Nanbiosis U18 Nanotoxicology Unit, explains, “the new protein nanoparticle contains a ligand that identifies a CXCR4 receptor on the surface of cancer cells in which it enters selectively, reaching a very high uptake of the tumor and very low in the rest of the body, which greatly exceeds the tumor uptake of drugs used for this type of lymphoma.”

The bioluminescent follow-up of cancer cells and nanoparticle biodistribution and toxicity studies has been performed in the ICTS NANBIOSIS Nanotoxicology Unit Protein production has been partially performed by the ICTS “NANBIOSIS”, more specifically by the Unit of Protein Production Platform.

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