Neat – a technique tested on mice that both neutralizes cancer’s chemical arsenal while boosting a patient’s immune system, though a new drug transport nanotechnology. Being tested for melanomas. Quote:
“You can think of the tumor and its microenvironment as a castle and a moat,” says Tarek Fahmy, the Yale University engineering professor and NSF CAREER grantee who led the research. “The ‘castles’ are cancerous tumors, which have evolved a highly intelligent structure–the tumor cells and vasculature. The ‘moat’ is the cancer’s defense system, which includes TGF-β. Our strategy is to ‘dry-up’ that moat by neutralizing the TGF-β. We do that using the inhibitor that is released from the nanolipogels. The inhibitor effectively stops the tumor’s ability to stunt an immune response.”
