Casein Based Nano-Vehicles for Oral Delivery of Chemotherapeutic Combinations to Overcome Multidrug Resistance in Gastric Cancer - ISMBE - Biomedical Engineering, International Convention Center Haifa 22.2.2018

Maya Bar-Zeev ^1,2,3 Yehuda G. Assaraf ³ Yoav D. Livney ^1,2

¹Russell Berrie Nanotechnology Institute, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology
²Department of Biotechnology and Food Engineering, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology
³Department of Biology, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology

Multidrug resistance (MDR) mediated by ATP-dependent efflux transporters continues to be a dominant obstacle towards curative cancer therapy. Most chemotherapy drugs are lipid-soluble administered intravenously using harmful solvents and surfactants. Bovine milk is comprised of ~80% phosphoproteins known as Caseins. Their amphiphilic structure enables them to naturally self-assemble into casein micelles (CM) in aqueous solutions. Herein we investigated the potential of re-assembled casein micelles (rCM) to serve as an oral target-activated delivery platform. The rCM comprising an individually encapsulated synergistic duo of a chemotherapeutic drug (paclitaxel) and a P-glycoprotein-specific transport inhibitor (tariquidar) demonstrated encapsulation, stabilization, target-activated release and remarkable MDR reversal in vitro. This new treatment strategy may help avoid hospitalization, which exposes immune deficient cancer patients to antibiotic-resistant bacteria as it enables treatment at the patient`s home.