In the June 1 issue of the journal Clinical Cancer Research, William Pardridge, M.D., UCLA, reported that a delivery packet equipped with two specific antibodies first recognizes the transferrin receptor, a key protein portal in the blood brain barrier, and then gains entry into brain cancer cells with the second antibody targeting the human insulin receptor.
Using the antibody keys to traverse both the blood brain barrier and the tumor cell membrane, the delivery packets--called liposomes--deposit a genetically engineered non-viral plasmid in the brain cancer cells. The plasmid encodes a short hairpin RNA (shRNA) designed to interfere with the expression of the epidermal growth factor receptor, EGFR, a potent proponent of tumor cell proliferation. The use of shRNA to silence gene expression is RNA interference (RNAi) technology.
新闻原文：
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2004-06/aafc-rds052604.php
文章原文：
Yun Zhang, Yu-feng Zhang, Joshua Bryant, Andrew Charles, Ruben J. Boado, and William M. Pardridge
Intravenous RNA Interference Gene Therapy Targeting the Human Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor Prolongs Survival in Intracranial Brain Cancer
Clin Cancer Res 2004 10: 3667-3677.
http://clincancerres.aacrjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/10/11/3667
