Tumor cell-targeted delivery of nanoconjugated oligonucleotides in composite spheroids.

ABSTRACT: Standard tissue culture has often been a poor model for predicting the efficacy of anti-cancer agents including oligonucleotides. In contrast to the simplicity of monolayer tissue cultures, a tumor mass includes tightly packed tumor cells, tortuous blood vessels, high levels of extracellular matrix, and stromal cells that support the tumor. These complexities pose a challenge for delivering therapeutic agents throughout the tumor, with many drugs limited to cells proximal to the vasculature. Multicellular tumor spheroids are superior to traditional monolayer cell culture for the assessment of cancer drug delivery, since they possess many of the characteristics of metastatic tumor foci. However, homogeneous spheroids comprised solely of tumor cells do not account for some of the key aspects

SUBMITTER: Carver K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4250944 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature