Researchers repurpose a cancer drug for the treatment of neuroinflammatory diseases
The repurposing of FDA-approved drugs for alternative diseases is a faster way of bringing new treatments into the clinic. Researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden have repurposed a cancer drug for the treatment of neuroinflammatory diseases such as multiple sclerosis. A novel drug carrier was also developed to facilitate drug delivery to target myeloid cells. These pre-clinical findings are described in a paper in the journal EMBO Reports.
To specifically target microglia and macrophages, a nanosystem using β-glucan-coated DNA origami (MyloGami) loaded with TPT (TopoGami) was developed in collaboration with Professor Björn Högberg's group at the Department of Medical Biochemistry and Biophysics. MyloGami had enhanced specificity for myeloid cells and also prevented the degradation of the DNA origami scaffold. Myeloid-specific TOP1 inhibition using TopoGami significantly suppressed the inflammatory response in microglia and mitigated MS-like disease progression.