Heres a short segment from Oregon Public Broadcasting describing some research on pH-driven delivery of compounds into tumors. Once you have followed the link, click on the Listen button to hear the radio news piece.
http://news.opb.org/article/osu-team-uses-nanotech-deliver-chemicals-tumor/Here's a newspaper clipping:
http://www.gtconnect.com/articles/2007/11/28/news/community/5aaa03_cancercure.txtAs for the paper:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?Db=pubmed&Cmd=ShowDetailView&TermToSearch=17900997Mata JE, Dyal LA, Slauson ME, Summerton JE, Loehr C, Tyson AR, Rodriguez-Proteau R, Gustafson SB. Tumor imaging using technetium-99m bound to pH-sensitive peptides. Nanomedicine. 2007 Sep 25; [Epub ahead of print]
Solid tumors often display metabolic abnormalities that consistently produce low pH in the extracellular space of poorly perfused tissue. These acidic regions may provide a mechanism for drug targeting. Peptides have been designed in such a manner that they exist in an anionic hydrophilic form at the pH of normal tissues, but then undergo a sharp transition to a non-ionic lipophilic form at reduced pH. Peptides were labeled with fluorescein or technicium-99m (99mTc) and evaluated in vitro and in two murine models of cancer. Our studies suggest that PAP-1, an 18 amino acid pH activated peptide with a pH of transition between hydrophilic and lipophilic forms (pT) of 6.4, will deliver fluorescein and 99mTc to tumors. Activation of PAP-1 by low pH and penetration into the plasma membrane of cells and tumors were confirmed using flow cytometry, fluorescence microscopy, and gamma scintigraphy. These results support our central hypothesis that PAP-1 may enable the selective delivery of macromolecules to tumors. This technology has potential for exploiting a common property of tumors to achieve highly specific medical intervention.