University of South Florida

H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute, Inc.

Rana Falahat

Norma Arcelia Alcantar

Ryan Gates Toomey

Marzenna Wiranowska

James Mulé

Genyuan Zhu

As disclosed herein, stromal cells are important for the recruitment and organization of lymphocytes in TLSs. Therefore, disclosed herein are composition and methods for bioengineering TLSs in animals, such as mice. These compositions involve chemokine-releasing microparticles or cells that can be implanted into the animals. Therefore, disclosed herein are chitosan hydrogels with chemokine releasing microparticles or cells.

Bioengineering tertiary lymphoid structures using chitosan-based hydrogels

Specific drug delivery to tumor cells without affecting normal cells is a major challenge in cancer treatment. The present invention incorporates embedding nonionic surfactant vesicles (niosomes) containing an anti-cancer therapeutic agent with chlorotoxin into a thermosensitive chitosan hydrogel network. Chitosan has mucoadhesive property which can be used in the targeting of the tumor cells with the mucin over expression. Chlorotoxin is a 36 amino acid peptide obtained fromscorpion venom which binds preferentially to tumor cells of neuroectodermal origin but not to normal cells. The incorporation of chlorotoxin along with niosomes in the chitosan hydrogel is used as the second targeting strategy to further improve the specific delivery of drugs to tumor cells such as glioma.

Enhanced targeted drug delivery system via chitosan hydrogel and chlorotoxin

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Tampa, FL, United States of America

Rana Falahat