Tag Archives: Surya P.Lamichhane

Trick your kidneys with sugar (molecules, that is)

A February 4, 2020 news item on Nanowerk announces research that makes it possible for kidneys to remove nanoparticles after they’ve been used in therapeutic remedies (Note: A link has been removed),

In the past decade nanomedicine has contributed to better detection and treatment of cancer. Nanoparticles are several 100 times smaller than the smallest grain of sand and can therefore easily travel in the blood stream to reach the tumor.

However, they are still too big to be removed by the kidneys. Since several doses of nanoparticles are necessary to treat a tumor, over time the nanoparticles can accumulate in the kidney and cause irreversible damage.

In a study published in the scientific journal Biomaterials (“Renal clearance of polymeric nanoparticles by mimicry of glycan surface of Viruses”), materials scientists at the University of Freiburg [Germany] led by Prof. Dr. Prasad Shastri from the Institute of Macromolecular Chemistry now present a natural solution to this problem: they built nanoparticles with the carbohydrate polysaccharides, which led to the excretion of the particles.

A February 4, 2020 University of Freiberg press release (also on EurekAlert), which originated the news item, expands on the theme,

In nature viruses such as the herpes simplex virus-1 and the cytomegalovirus, which are able to pass through the kidney filtration apparatus despite their large size compared to nanoparticles. Shastri and his team identified that both viruses presents sugar molecules on their surface. Inspired by this observation, the scientists engineered nanoparticles containing polysaccharides. These carbohydrates are frequently found in the human tissue environment. Using a real-time imaging technique, which they have established in their laboratory, the team investigated in a mouse model the fate of these nanoparticles. They observed that the polysaccharide-enriched nanoparticles readily pass through the kidney and are excreted with the urine within a few hours after intravenous administration. The decisive factor for the researchers was that the nanoparticles continued to act as intended and were still able to target tumors.

“The ability to combine tumor accumulation and kidney clearance in the same nanoparticle represents a tipping point in ensuring that nanomedicines can be safely administered” says Shastri. “Our nature-inspired approach enabled us to trick the kidney environment to let nanoparticles pass through” adds Dr. Melika Sarem who was a co-author of the study.

Prasad Shastri is Professor of Biofunctional Macromolecular Chemistry at the Institute for Macromolecular Chemistry and Professor of Cell Signalling Environments in the Excellence Cluster BIOSS Centre for Biological Signalling Studies and at the University of Freiburg.

Here’s a link to and a citation for the paper,

Renal clearance of polymeric nanoparticles by mimicry of glycan surface of viruses by Pradeep P.Wyss, Surya P.Lamichhane, Ahmed Abed, Daniel Vonwil, Oliver Kretz, Tobias B. Huber, Melika Sarema, V. Prasad Shastri. Biomaterials Volume 230, February 2020, 119643 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biomaterials.2019.119643 First published online November 23, 2019

This paper is behind a paywall.