#C16812
Inventor(s): Victoria Lai, Sarah Neshat, and Joshua C. Doloff
Unmet Need
Cancer is the second worldwide cause of death, exceeded only by cardiovascular diseases. Despite technological advancements, the challenge remains to create anti-cancer drugs, or antineoplastics, that are safe, effective, and deliverable to the correct tissue at the right time. Today, targeted therapies in cancer treatment aim to ‘target’ cancer cells, without causing harm to normal, noncancerous, cells. Unfortunately, therapeutics often result in substantial side effects and present safety concerns due to global dissemination. One such therapeutic, sorafenib, indicated for liver carcinoma, renal cell carcinoma, and thyroid cancer is associated with serious adverse side effects. Therefore, there is a strong need for a drug delivery system that allows a multi-targeted agent to have improved targeting by be locally dosed at a sustained rate of release within an optimal target dose window, in turn, reducing side effects or emergence of cancer cell drug resistance.
Technology Overview
Researchers at Johns Hopkins have developed a crystallization approach for the multi-receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitor sorafenib that enables controlled long-term drug delivery following a single injection. This development in technology allows for the ability to eliminate dangerous organic solvents to deliver an incredibly hydrophobic drug. Crystals allow one to obtain a 100% pure, densely packed drug delivery depot/system, capable of tunable release kinetics that can last as long as months to years, or be designed for shorter days to weeks timescale as well. With further research, this targeted therapy may prove to have significant clinical implications, demonstrating minimal toxicity and improved clinical outcomes.
Stage of Development
Experimental data is available.
Publication
Lai, V.*, Neshat, S. Y.*, Rakoski, A., Pitingolo, J., Sabedra, J., Li, S., Shodhan, A., & Doloff, J. C. (2021). Crystallization of the Multi-Receptor Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitor Sorafenib for Controlled Long-Term Drug Delivery Following a Single Injection. Cellular and molecular bioengineering, 14(5), 471–486. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12195-021-00708-6
*: co-first authors
