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September 8, 2006

Researcher lights the way to better drug delivery

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — A Purdue University researcher has explained for the first time the details of how drugs are released within a cancer cell, improving the ability to deliver drugs to a specific target without affecting surrounding cells.

Jun Yang and Philip Low
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"As a general strategy, the indiscriminate delivery of drugs into every cell of the body for the treatment of a few specific pathologic cells, such as cancer cells, is a thing of the past," said Philip Low, the Ralph C. Corley Distinguished Professor of Chemistry. "Most new drugs under development will be targeted directly to the pathologic, disease-causing cells, and we have shed light on the details of one mechanism by which this is achieved."

An understanding of the cellular process that leads to the release of targeted drugs is a major advancement for the field, he said.

"This will help others interested in targeted drug therapy," said Low, who also is founder and chief science officer of Endocyte Inc., a Purdue Research Park-based company. "The knowledge applies not only to the treatment of cancer. The understanding of how to deliver and unload a cancer drug can be extrapolated to all sorts of other diseased cells. The uptake pathways are similar in cells involved in arthritis, multiple sclerosis, psoriasis and Crohn's disease."

Drug release within a treated cancer cell
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Interest in how drugs are released after they enter their targeted cell led Low and his team to develop a color-coded method to visualize the cellular mechanisms. Jun Yang, a postdoctoral research associate in Low's research group, together with Ji-Xin Cheng, an assistant professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering, and his graduate student Hongtao Cheng, developed this method using a technique called fluorescence resonance energy transfer imaging.

"The drug turns from red to green when it is released inside the cell, clearly illuminating the process," Yang said. "This is the first optical method to be developed

Paul Shepson, Head
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