Scientists at McGill University and the Rosalind and Morris Goodman Cancer Institute have developed a new way to deliver cancer immunotherapy that caused fewer side effects compared to standard treatment in a preclinical study.
The experimental approach is designed to treat cancer that has spread to the lymph nodes, a difficult-to-treat stage of the disease. Today, most immunotherapies are delivered by intravenous (IV) infusion and circulate throughout the body. This can trigger immune responses in healthy tissues, leading to serious side effects.
"Some immunotherapies cause such severe side effects that clinicians are forced to lower the dose, making treatment less effective," said senior author Guojun Chen, Assistant Professor in McGill's Department of Biomedical Engineering and member of the Goodman Cancer Institute. "Our approach could allow for higher, more effective doses while limiting toxicity, which is a major goal in cancer treatment."
How it works
To avoid effects throughout the body, researchers packaged an existing immunotherapy drug into engineered nanoparticles. The tiny particles travel through the bloodstream and release and activate the drug when they reach lymph nodes affected by cancer.
"Our nanoparticles can sense a molecule that's abundant in cancerous lymph nodes. When they detect it, they activate the drug exactly where it's needed, while in healthy tissues, the drugs remains inactivated and eventually degraded" Chen said, who is also the Canada Research Chair in Biomaterials and Biomacromolecule Delivery.
Published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), the results from mouse models demonstrate the nanoparticles reduced harmful side effects and improved effectiveness compared with standard IV immunotherapy.
The approach helps address a key challenge in cancer care. Lymph nodes affected by cancer are often surgically removed, a step that can weaken the immune system.
"Lymph nodes are essential immune organs," said first author Yueyang Deng, a postdoctoral researcher in the Chen Lab at McGill. "With this approach, we can potentially treat the disease while preserving the immune system's normal function."
Engineering meets cancer care
More broadly, the breakthrough highlights how engineering is reshaping cancer research.
"mRNA vaccines are a great example of what nanomedicine can achieve, and there's tremendous potential as cancer biology and materials science come together," said Chen.
The team is now evaluating safety in other preclinical studies before initiating any clinical trials.
About the study
"Bioresponsive immunomodulator nanocomplex for selective immunoengineering in metastatic lymph nodes" by Yueyang Deng, Mo Chen, Tianxu Fang, Tianwen Luo, Xiaona Cao, and Guojun Chen was published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (PNAS).
Funding was provided by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Canada Research Chairs Program and Fonds de recherche du Québec.
