Congratulations to Wang Xin, a PhD student from Dr. Edward Chow’s group, for winning 1st prize of Best Paper Award at the Best of ASCO (BASCO) 2015 – 1st SSO Annual Scientific Meeting, a conference organized by the Singapore Society of Oncology from 31 July to 1 August 2015.
The theme for this year’s BASCO meeting was “Illumination & Innovation: Transforming Data into Learning”. This conference showcased the latest innovative research findings in medical oncology practice and the current cancer treatment strategies to enhance clinical care within resource limitations.
21 abstracts were submitted and Wang Xin’s paper stood out to clinch the Best Paper Award to be one of the leading research and strategies in oncology that will impact patient care directly.
Using nanodiamond for drug delivery in liver cancer treatment by adsorbing Epirubicin.
Wang Xin1, Low Xinyi Casuarine1, Lissa N. A.2, Hou Weixin2, Tan Boon Toh2, Masturah.m.a.Rashid1, Edward K Chow1,2
Wang and Low contributed equally to the paper.
1 Department of Pharmacology, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, 21 Lower Kent Ridge Rd, 119077, Singapore
2 Cancer Science Institute of Singapore, National University of Singapore, Centre for Translational Medicine, 14 Medical Drive Singapore 117599
Background: Liver cancers are among the most common cancers worldwide and hepatocellular carcinomas (HCCs) account for 75% of all primary liver cancers. In HCCs, potential cancer stem cells (CSCs) have been identified through the isolation of side population (SP) cells according to the ability to efflux Hoechst 33343 dye. These SP cells share many functional properties of CSCs such as extensive self-renewal and proliferative capacity, and more importantly, the ability to initiate tumor growth in immuno-compromised mice. SP cells are also resistant to conventional chemotherapies and are the likely candidates for tumor recurrence owing to the ability to efflux drugs effectively via expression of various ABC drug transporters. Here, we proposed the use of a nanoparticle drug delivery platform, nanodiamonds (NDs) for targeting of these chemoresistant cells. Using ND adsorbed with a common chemotherapeutic agent, Epirubicin (Epi), we demonstrated that these EPND complex can prolong drug retention in tumor cells. More importantly, we also showed that EPND complex can significantly reduced the SP cells as compared to Epirubicin drug alone. Finally, EPND showed significant lower toxicity than Epi. Collectively, ND-conjugated chemotherapy presents a promising avenue for overcoming chemoresistance in cancers.