Nanofiber multidrug offers new strategy for glioblastoma

Science and medical outlets highlighted promising research by the University of Cincinnati and Johns Hopkins Medicine featuring a nanofiber mesh researchers developed to administer a multidrug treatment for brain cancer.

UC College of Engineering and Applied Science Assistant Professor Daewoo Han and UC Distinguished Research Professor Andrew Steckl, an Ohio Eminent Scholar, embedded three drugs into a coaxial electrospun fiber that created a synergistic effect that showed promise in experiments.

The drugs proved more effective in combination than when administered alone and can provide both immediate and long-lasting doses to kill cancer cells.

Glioblastoma is the most common and aggressive form of brain cancer in adults. Researchers at UC and Johns Hopkins found that the three federally approved drugs used to treat glioblastoma (temozolomide, acriflavine and PT2385) work better in combination than they would alone, a pharmaceutical phenomenon called synergism.

The study on synergistic glioblastoma treatment was published in the journal ACS Biomaterials Science & Engineering. The research was supported with a grant from the National Institutes of Health.

• Technology Networks: Nanofiber system delivers triple therapy to glioblastoma

• Pulse: Implant doubles mouse survival in glioblastoma

• Neuroscience News: Localized synergistic nanofibers could eliminate glioblastoma

• Phys.org: Nanofiber implant delivers three drugs, doubles survival in mice

• The Science Blog: Tiny drug-loaded mesh in the brain keeps glioblastoma at bay

• Gene Online: Nanofiber mesh delivers three drugs to treat brain cancer

• GizmoMD: Nanofiber based multidrug offers new strategy against glioblastoma

• Pharma Focus Europe: UC researchers develop new treatment for brain cancer

Featured image at top: UC Assistant Professor Daewoo Han holds up nanofiber mesh used to administer a multidrug to treat brain cancer. Photo/Joseph Fuqua II/UC