Mahidol Engineering and Medicine Rama Hospital Invent First Time in ASEAN ‘Brain Cancer Drug Delivery System from Biopolymer Gel’
Brain cancer is one of the diseases with a high mortality rate, surviving less than 10% and difficult to cure. Research team of 3 Thai people from Mahidol University ‘s the Faculty of Engineering and the Faculty of Medicine Ramathibodi Hospital invented for the first time in ASEAN, the innovative ‘Injectable Polymeric Drug Delivery System for Human Brain Cancer Treatment’ that changes the face of cancer treatment by delivering drugs to the targeted cancer in the brain at the right point and inhibiting brain cancer cells with no toxic effects. With satisfactory result of Phase 1 clinical test, it is the hope of Thai people to see this research into real production in the fight against cancer to save many lives of Thai people and human beings around the world.
Prof. Piyamitr Sritara, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, Ramathibodi Hospital, Mahidol University, said that cancer is one of the five deadliest diseases that kill Thai people the most, with an average of 342 deaths per day from cancer in 2020 or 124,866 people per year and there are 190,636 new cases. Although brain cancer is a small proportion, just 1% comparing to all cancer patients. But the spread of cancer from other organs would cause a risk of brain cancer as well. Brain cancer is a growth disorder in which brain cells grow abnormally until causing the initial condition ‘tumor’ before gradually invades to press on blood vessels or nerves in the brain until eventually causing malignant neoplasms in adults with less than 10% chance of cure for brain cancer. This R & D collaboration between Mahidol University ‘s Faculty of Engineering and Faculty of Medicine, Ramathibodi Hospital comes from our determination to improve the quality of life of Thai people in the fight against brain cancer and will be applied to treat other types of cancer in the future as well.
Assoc.Prof.Dr.Jackrit Suthakorn, Dean of the Faculty of Engineering, Mahidol University, said that biomedical engineering plays an important role in the world of medicine and health security. Innovators are focusing on research and development of technology for Drug Delivery System or DDS into the human body to treat disease, which has a very high demand and growth; to invent a method for treating humans to be precise and targeted (Precision Medicine) as well as to be more effective in saving human lives and reduce the effects on the system in the human body. Success in innovative ‘Biopolymer gel injectable brain cancer drug delivery system’ is the first time in ASEAN by Mahidol University’s research team consisting of Assoc. Prof. Dr. Norased Nasongkla, Faculty of Engineering, Assoc. Prof. Atthaporn Boongird, Department of Surgery and Prof. Suradej Hongeng, Department of Pediatrics, Faculty of Medicine Ramathibodi Hospital. This innovation will benefit the lives and health of Thai people and humanity as well as creating economic value. Each year, around 2 billion people worldwide need ‘Drug delivery system into the body to treat disease’ through various forms that are effective. Economically, the total value is over 200 billion US dollars. We believe that the future trend of biomaterials will change the face of health care or therapy to a new era. This is in line with the BCG (Bio-Circular-Green Economy) economy which is the national agenda and the APEC community.
Assoc.Prof.Dr.Norased Nasongkla, Head of the Department of Biomedical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Mahidol University, discussing on innovation development ‘A drug delivery system for injecting brain cancer from biopolymer gels’ revealed that patients with brain cancer or brain tumors are relatively slow to be detected or treated because the initial symptoms are not very pronounced. The tumor can expand over time, causing increased pressure inside the skull that causes headache, vomiting, optic nerve swelling, may be deaf in one ear, slowed thinking, personality changes or have spasms, depending on where the tumor is in the brain. Currently, the main treatments used for cancer is chemotherapy, surgery and radiation. These methods have limitations and high side effects. So, to solve this problem, the research team has developed an innovative ‘Biopolymer gel injectable drug delivery system’ that can directly deliver drugs or active ingredients to target cancer cells or brain tumors directly. This will reduce the wastage of medication including reducing the incidence of toxicity to normal cells and organs as well.
Mahidol Engineering Research Team has invented and synthesized ‘BioPolymer’, which has special properties in the laboratory and developed as a key component of injectable drug delivery systems for the treatment of brain cancer without toxicity to the body and it is biodegradable. It is selected from a co-polymers consisting of various selected polymers. It is injectable and can solidify. This makes the function of the injection system for the treatment of brain cells to be effective. When the drug is injected into the tumor or cancerous brain, the polymer solution can be solidified. The water in the body will penetrate. This causes the transformation from a solution to a semi-solid, semi-liquid substance or a ‘Biopolymer gel’ which will act to store anti-brain cancer drugs SN-38 or 7-Ethyl-10-Hydroxycamptothecin, which is endogenous and slowly released into the cancer targets in the brain over 60 days and thereafter degraded. The success of the research was developed and tested. We investigated the anti-cancer effect on human and animal models of Glioblastoma U87MG cells.
Assoc.Prof. Atthaporn Boongird, a neurosurgeon specializing in neurosurgery, Department of Surgery, Faculty of Medicine, Ramathibodi Hospital, Mahidol University said that ‘Biopolymer gel-based brain cancer drug delivery system’ is a good alternative and answers the limitations of surgical treatment or how to combine surgery with radiation which also has a low survival rate. Because the brain is the most complex organ and is sensitive to many systems in our body. This makes it difficult to surgically remove all brain cancer cells. After surgery, biopolymer gel containing the anti-brain cancer drug can be placed around the extent of the surgical wound where there may be residual cancer cells to prevent recurrence.
Prof. Suradej Hongeng, Department of Pediatrics, Faculty of Medicine, Ramathibodi Hospital, Mahidol University, said that this new treatment for brain cancer could help replace chemotherapy which has limitations in terms of high toxicity and the low ability of the drug to enter the target organ. This is because the action of chemotherapy goes through many different systems of the human body, causing the amount of the drug to be lost in the various systems. It also causes side effects on cells and organs. For the research results, it was found that ‘Biopolymer gel with anti-brain cancer drug delivery system’ can stop cancer growth and is suitable for stationary cancer such as organ cancer. But it is not suitable for invasive cancer. It was tested on rats with good results and in Phase 1 clinical test in 2021 in 7 brain cancer patients with satisfactory results which we found to be non-toxic to the body and brain cancer responds well to the injected drug delivery system. For Phase 2 clinical test in 10 new brain cancer patients has been started since January 2022. After that, Phase 3 clinical test will continue. The next stage of more research funding is the hope of Thai people to see the results of this research into real production in the fight against cancer to save many lives of Thai people and their fellow human beings around the world.
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Norased Nasongkla concluded that 7 strengths and benefits of innovation ‘Brain cancer drug delivery system from biopolymer gel’ are 1. Reducing the loss of life from brain cancer and other cancers. Give patients access to innovations 2. Reducing the patient’s risk from the impact on life and health from the toxic effects of cancer treatments 3. BioPolymer enhancing the effectiveness of brain cancer treatment by being dissolved and store medicine which can gradually targeted release into cancer cells for up to 60 days. 4. Biodegradable and non-toxic to the human’s body. 5. Biocompatibility to humans according to international standards. 6. Supporting the development of made- in-Thailand health tech and healthcare enhancing Thailand as a medical and health hub in the global region 7. Able to apply this innovation to other cancer treatments in the future.
Source: บริษัท เบรนเอเซีย คอมมิวนิเคชั่น จำกัด
