Commentary 10.1172/JCI93955

Access granted: iRGD helps silicasome-encased drugs breach the tumor barrier

Erkki Ruoslahti

Cancer Research Center, Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute, La Jolla, California, USA. Center for Nanomedicine and Department of Molecular Cellular and Developmental Biology, University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, California, USA.

Address correspondence to: Erkki Ruoslahti, Cancer Research Center, Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute, 10901 N. Torrey Pines Rd., La Jolla, California 92037, USA. Phone: 858.646.3100, ext. 3101; E-mail: ruoslahti@sbpdiscovery.org.

Find articles by Ruoslahti, E. in: JCI | PubMed | Google Scholar

First published April 17, 2017 - More info

Published in Volume 127, Issue 5 (May 1, 2017)
J Clin Invest. 2017;127(5):1622–1624. doi:10.1172/JCI93955.
Copyright © 2017, American Society for Clinical Investigation

First published April 17, 2017 Accepted: date unavailable

See the related article at Tumor-penetrating peptide enhances transcytosis of silicasome-based chemotherapy for pancreatic cancer.

In this issue of the JCI, Liu et al. use irinotecan-loaded nanoparticles to treat pancreatic adenocarcinomas in mice. Encapsulating drugs into nanoparticles has distinct advantages: it can improve the pharmacokinetics of the drug, enhance efficacy, and reduce unwanted side effects. A drawback is that the large size of nanoparticles restricts their access to the tumor interior. Liu and colleagues show that the cyclic tumor-penetrating peptide iRGD, reported to be capable of enhancing tumor penetration by drugs, can overcome this limitation to a substantial degree when administered together with the nanoparticles. Pancreatic adenocarcinoma is a challenging malignancy to treat and in desperate need for improved treatments; therefore, advances like this are most welcome.

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