据美国《纽约时报》6月28日报道，澳大利亚科学家开发出一种“特洛伊木马”疗法来对抗癌症。该方法从细菌上摘取纳米细胞，让其渗透进入癌细胞并让癌细胞“缴械投降”，再用另一个带有化疗药物的纳米细胞杀死癌细胞。相关研究发表在最新出版的《自然·生物技术》杂志上。
进行该项研究的科学家詹尼弗·麦克戴米德和希曼苏·婆罗姆布哈特表示，在过去的两年内，他们在具有人类癌症细胞的老鼠身上使用了“特洛伊木马”疗法，研究表明，老鼠的存活率为100%。他们计划在接下来的几个月内开始在人类身上进行临床试验，这种细胞传递系统的人体试验将从下周开始在皇家墨尔本医院展开。
麦克戴米德表示，“特洛伊木马”疗法同目前的治疗方法不一样，可以直接攻击癌症细胞。目前，医生一般将化疗药物注射进癌症病人体内，药物会同时攻击癌症细胞和正常细胞。
研究人员称，第一批名为EnGenelC Delivery Vehicle的“迷你”细胞释放出核糖核酸分子，让癌症细胞不再能够生产对抗化学疗法的蛋白质。接着，第二批“迷你”细胞进入癌症细胞，释放出化学疗法药物，杀死癌症细胞。
研究人员一直使用核糖核酸干预法来使某些基因沉默，这些基因可能产生引发某些疾病的蛋白质，这些疾病包括癌症、失明以及艾滋病，很多公司都在前赴后继地寻找操纵RNA的方法。
婆罗姆布哈特表示，传统的药物治疗会让一些癌症细胞死亡，但有些细胞也会产生使癌症细胞对化疗药物产生抗药性的蛋白质，导致病人因后续治疗失败而最终死亡。她指出，希望通过“特洛伊木马”疗法将癌症当作一种慢性疾病来管理。（生物谷Bioon.com）
生物谷推荐原始出处：
Nature Biotechnology 28 June 2009 | doi:10.1038/nbt.1547
Sequential treatment of drug-resistant tumors with targeted minicells containing siRNA or a cytotoxic drug
Jennifer A MacDiarmid1, Nancy B Amaro-Mugridge1, Jocelyn Madrid-Weiss1, Ilya Sedliarou1, Stefanie Wetzel1, Kartini Kochar1, Vatsala N Brahmbhatt1, Leo Phillips1, Scott T Pattison1, Carlotta Petti1, Bruce Stillman2, Robert M Graham3,4 & Himanshu Brahmbhatt1
The dose-limiting toxicity of chemotherapeutics, heterogeneity and drug resistance of cancer cells, and difficulties of targeted delivery to tumors all pose daunting challenges to effective cancer therapy. We report that small interfering RNA (siRNA) duplexes readily penetrate intact bacterially derived minicells previously shown to cause tumor stabilization and regression when packaged with chemotherapeutics. When targeted via antibodies to tumor-cell-surface receptors, minicells can specifically and sequentially deliver to tumor xenografts first siRNAs or short hairpin RNA (shRNA)–encoding plasmids to compromise drug resistance by knocking down a multidrug resistance protein. Subsequent administration of targeted minicells containing cytotoxic drugs eliminate formerly drug-resistant tumors. The two waves of treatment, involving minicells loaded with both types of payload, enable complete survival without toxicity in mice with tumor xenografts, while involving several thousandfold less drug, siRNA and antibody than needed for conventional systemic administration of cancer therapies.
1 EnGeneIC Pty Ltd., Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
2 Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor, New York, USA.
3 Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute, Darlinghurst, New South Wales, Australia.
4 University of New South Wales, Kensington, New South Wales, Australia.
