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Researchers say they’ve developed a technique that uses light to activate a drug stored in circulating red blood cells (RBCs) so the drug is released exactly when and where it’s needed.
The group believes the work could have profound implications for the field of drug delivery.
They say the technique could drastically reduce the amount of drug needed to treat diseases and therefore decrease the risk of side effects.
“Using light to treat a disease site has a lot of benefits beyond the ‘isn’t-that-cool’ factor,” said study author David Lawrence, PhD, of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
“Those benefits could include avoiding surgery and the risk of infection, making anesthesia unnecessary, and allowing people to treat themselves by shining a light on a problem area, such as an arthritic knee.”
Dr Lawrence and his colleagues described their technique in Angewandte Chemie.
The researchers attached various drug molecules (methotrexate, colchicine, and paclitaxel) to vitamin B12 and loaded the compounds into RBCs, which can circulate for up to 4 months, potentially providing a lasting reservoir of treatment that could be tapped as needed.
The team then demonstrated their ability to overcome a long-time technical hurdle: using long-wavelength light to penetrate deep enough into the body to break molecular bonds; in this case, the drug linked to vitamin B12.
Long-wavelength light can penetrate much more deeply into the body, but it doesn’t carry as much energy as short-wavelength light and cannot typically break molecular bonds.
To activate the drugs with long-wavelength light, the researchers had to determine how to do it in a way that required less energy.
“That’s the trick, and that’s where we’ve been successful,” Dr Lawrence said.
The team solved the energy problem by introducing a weak energy bond between vitamin B12 and the drug and then attaching a fluorescent molecule to the bond.
The fluorescent molecule acts as an antenna, capturing long-wavelength light and using it to cut the bond between the drug and the vitamin carrier.
Dr Lawrence noted that this technique could prove useful in treating cancers for which patients may need to receive a wide array of anticancer agents.
“The problem is, when you start using 4 or 5 very toxic drugs, you’re going to have intolerable side effects,” he said. “However, by focusing powerful drugs at a specific site, it may be possible to significantly reduce or eliminate the side effects that commonly accompany cancer chemotherapy.”
Dr Lawrence has created a company in partnership with the University of North Carolina, Iris BioMed, to further develop the technology to be used in humans. 
Researchers say they’ve developed a technique that uses light to activate a drug stored in circulating red blood cells (RBCs) so the drug is released exactly when and where it’s needed.
The group believes the work could have profound implications for the field of drug delivery.
They say the technique could drastically reduce the amount of drug needed to treat diseases and therefore decrease the risk of side effects.
“Using light to treat a disease site has a lot of benefits beyond the ‘isn’t-that-cool’ factor,” said study author David Lawrence, PhD, of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
“Those benefits could include avoiding surgery and the risk of infection, making anesthesia unnecessary, and allowing people to treat themselves by shining a light on a problem area, such as an arthritic knee.”
Dr Lawrence and his colleagues described their technique in Angewandte Chemie.
The researchers attached various drug molecules (methotrexate, colchicine, and paclitaxel) to vitamin B12 and loaded the compounds into RBCs, which can circulate for up to 4 months, potentially providing a lasting reservoir of treatment that could be tapped as needed.
The team then demonstrated their ability to overcome a long-time technical hurdle: using long-wavelength light to penetrate deep enough into the body to break molecular bonds; in this case, the drug linked to vitamin B12.
Long-wavelength light can penetrate much more deeply into the body, but it doesn’t carry as much energy as short-wavelength light and cannot typically break molecular bonds.
To activate the drugs with long-wavelength light, the researchers had to determine how to do it in a way that required less energy.
“That’s the trick, and that’s where we’ve been successful,” Dr Lawrence said.
The team solved the energy problem by introducing a weak energy bond between vitamin B12 and the drug and then attaching a fluorescent molecule to the bond.
The fluorescent molecule acts as an antenna, capturing long-wavelength light and using it to cut the bond between the drug and the vitamin carrier.
Dr Lawrence noted that this technique could prove useful in treating cancers for which patients may need to receive a wide array of anticancer agents.
“The problem is, when you start using 4 or 5 very toxic drugs, you’re going to have intolerable side effects,” he said. “However, by focusing powerful drugs at a specific site, it may be possible to significantly reduce or eliminate the side effects that commonly accompany cancer chemotherapy.”
Dr Lawrence has created a company in partnership with the University of North Carolina, Iris BioMed, to further develop the technology to be used in humans.
Researchers say they’ve developed a technique that uses light to activate a drug stored in circulating red blood cells (RBCs) so the drug is released exactly when and where it’s needed.
The group believes the work could have profound implications for the field of drug delivery.
They say the technique could drastically reduce the amount of drug needed to treat diseases and therefore decrease the risk of side effects.
“Using light to treat a disease site has a lot of benefits beyond the ‘isn’t-that-cool’ factor,” said study author David Lawrence, PhD, of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
“Those benefits could include avoiding surgery and the risk of infection, making anesthesia unnecessary, and allowing people to treat themselves by shining a light on a problem area, such as an arthritic knee.”
Dr Lawrence and his colleagues described their technique in Angewandte Chemie.
The researchers attached various drug molecules (methotrexate, colchicine, and paclitaxel) to vitamin B12 and loaded the compounds into RBCs, which can circulate for up to 4 months, potentially providing a lasting reservoir of treatment that could be tapped as needed.
The team then demonstrated their ability to overcome a long-time technical hurdle: using long-wavelength light to penetrate deep enough into the body to break molecular bonds; in this case, the drug linked to vitamin B12.
Long-wavelength light can penetrate much more deeply into the body, but it doesn’t carry as much energy as short-wavelength light and cannot typically break molecular bonds.
To activate the drugs with long-wavelength light, the researchers had to determine how to do it in a way that required less energy.
“That’s the trick, and that’s where we’ve been successful,” Dr Lawrence said.
The team solved the energy problem by introducing a weak energy bond between vitamin B12 and the drug and then attaching a fluorescent molecule to the bond.
The fluorescent molecule acts as an antenna, capturing long-wavelength light and using it to cut the bond between the drug and the vitamin carrier.
Dr Lawrence noted that this technique could prove useful in treating cancers for which patients may need to receive a wide array of anticancer agents.
“The problem is, when you start using 4 or 5 very toxic drugs, you’re going to have intolerable side effects,” he said. “However, by focusing powerful drugs at a specific site, it may be possible to significantly reduce or eliminate the side effects that commonly accompany cancer chemotherapy.”
Dr Lawrence has created a company in partnership with the University of North Carolina, Iris BioMed, to further develop the technology to be used in humans.