UoH granted patent on formulation for cancer treatment

Hyderabad: University of Hyderabad has been granted a patent on a novel formulation that provides wide applications and advantages in the treatment of cancer, gene therapy, and other related conditions.

A patent is an exclusive right to a product or a process that generally provides a new way of doing something, or offers a new technical solution to a problem.

An Indian Patent titled “Novel Formulation containing native or recombinant Apotransferrin or Lactoferrin nanoparticle loaded with biological alone or in combination with chemotherapeutic agents for targeted delivery” has been granted to Prof Anand Kondapi, Department of Biotechnology and Bioinformatics at UoH.

Their novel formulation contains native or recombinant Lactoferrin nanoparticles loaded with a combination of chemotherapeutic agents for targeted delivery.

In the current treatment of cancer and other disease conditions, there is a requirement for the use of a biological alone (DNA, siRNA, Antibody) or in combination with a biological chemotherapeutic agent.

During chemotherapy, the biological (DNA, RNA, antibody) are given separately and drugs are given separately, it is not certain whether both will reach the intended cell like cancer or disease-bearing cells.

Thus, encapsulating biological and drug together in a nanoparticle will facilitate the delivery of the drug and biological together facilitating action of both of them in the target cell.

Another important feature of the technology is the use of natural proteins like those present in cow milk, Lactoferrin or the protein present in the blood, Apo transferrin as a nano vehicle.

The receptors for these two proteins are highly expressed in metabolically active cancer cells, thus when administered orally or intravenously route these nanoparticles reach cancer cells, delivering the cargo of biological and/or drug(s) conferring the intended effect for the degeneration of cancer.

This patent provides a targeted delivery formulation that can deliver biological alone or a combination of biological with chemotherapeutic drug or Biological with a regulated/delayed delivery of chemotherapeutic agent based on the disease requirement.

If this technology is realized in a clinical setup, there will be wide applications and advantages in the treatment of cancer, gene therapy, and other related conditions.