Vladimir P Torchilin
Northeastern University, USA
Title: Next Step in drug delivery: Getting Inside cells and to individual organelles
Biography
Biography: Vladimir P Torchilin
Abstract
There are already some means to deliver drugs inside cells bypassing the lysosomal degradation. Thus, coupling of cellpenetrating
peptides (CPP) to various molecules, including peptides and proteins, or even to nanoparticles, such as
liposomes, dramatically facilitates their intracellular delivery. Similar effect could be achieved using phage coat fusion proteins
purified from the phages selected for their specificity towards certain target cells as was shown with liposome-loaded anticancer
drugs. The combination of targeted delivery of drug-loaded nanopreparations to target cells and their subsequent delivery
inside cells might still further improve the efficiency of therapy. Intracellular drug delivery with subsequent organelle targeting
opens new opportunities in overcoming problems associated with multiple pathologies including lysosomal storage diseases
and multidrug resistance (MDR) tumors. Delivery of deficient enzymes for the treatment of lysosomal diseases evidently
requires specific targeting of lysosomes, while facilitating apoptotic cell death in MDR tumor would require targeting of
mitochondria or lysosomes. Thus, next generation drug delivery systems should be able to target individual organelles inside
cells. Clearly, this challenge will require some novel approaches in engineering multifunctional nanomedicines, capable of
accumulating in the target tissue, penetrating inside cells, bypassing lysosomes, and bringing pharmaceuticals to individual
organelles. Examples of specific targeting of pharmaceutical nanocarriers loaded with pharmaceutical agents to lysosomes and
mitochondria in cells illustrate the benefits of this new approach.