The unwanted growth of blood vessels is a key feature of a number of serious diseases including cancers, arthritis and macular degeneration. While there are a number of drugs that effectively inhibit the angiogenesis, or growth, of these vessels some only target a limited number of receptor or have unacceptable side affects.

A team at Boston Children's Hospital have now succeeded in reformulating a broad-spectrum angiogenesis inhibitor, TNP-470, using a nanotechnology approach into a form that can be taken orally and that has the potential to be used as a preventative or maintenance therapy for a variety of cancers. TNP-470 was derived some 20 years ago from the fungus Fumagillin and has a very broad spectrum of anti-angiogenic activity including against some metastatic cancers. Because of serious neurological side effects at high doses however trials were stopped during the 1990s.

The team, led by Dr Ofra Benny, used nanoscale polymeric micelles to encapsulate TNP-470 molecules and also incorporated PEG and PLA chains that protect the drug from the stomach's acidic environment and allow the drug to be absorbed into the bloodstream and to reach the tumour sites when taken orally. The new formulation, named Lodamin, appears to retain TNP-470's efficacy and broad spectrum activity against aggressive tumour models but without the neurological side effects.

Further clinical development of the nanoformulated drug is now being investigated.

Further information available at the Boston Children's Hospital website.