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Updated: Jan 25, 2026
07:54
Surface-enhanced Resonance Raman Scattering Nanoprobe Ratiometry for Detecting Microscopic Ovarian Cancer via Folate Receptor Targeting
Published on: March 25, 2019
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Developing Body-Components-Based Theranostic Nanoparticles for Targeting Ovarian Cancer
Ravit Edelman1, Yehuda G Assaraf2, Anton Slavkin3
1The Lab of Biopolymers for Food and Health, Department of Biotechnology and Food Engineering, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa 3200000, Israel. ravited@technion.ac.il.
Pharmaceutics
|May 8, 2019
Summary
We developed new theranostic nanoparticles (NPs) using hyaluronic acid (HA) and serum albumin (SA) to target ovarian cancer. These NPs deliver chemotherapy and enable imaging, showing high efficacy against CD44-expressing cancer cells.
Area of Science:
- Biomaterials Science
- Nanomedicine
- Oncology
Background:
- Ovarian cancer has high mortality, necessitating early diagnosis and targeted therapies.
- Current treatments face challenges in specificity and efficacy.
- Developing theranostic agents offers a dual approach for diagnosis and treatment.
Purpose of the Study:
- To create novel theranostic nanoparticles (NPs) for ovarian cancer.
- To combine diagnostic imaging with targeted chemotherapy delivery.
- To utilize biocompatible materials like hyaluronic acid (HA) and serum albumin (SA) for NP construction.
Main Methods:
- Synthesized self-assembling block copolymeric Maillard-conjugates of HA and SA.
- Developed fluorescently-labeled NPs for imaging and loaded them with paclitaxel (PTX).
- Evaluated NP internalization, cytotoxicity, and targeting specificity in CD44-overexpressing ovarian cancer cells.
Main Results:
- Successfully constructed fluorescent HA-SA NPs with high PTX loading (96% encapsulation efficiency).
- Demonstrated selective internalization and potent cytotoxicity in CD44-positive ovarian cancer cells (IC50: 26.4 nM).
- Showed significantly reduced efficacy in CD44-lacking cells, confirming targeting specificity.
Conclusions:
- HA-SA NPs effectively target and deliver chemotherapy to CD44-expressing ovarian cancer cells.
- These theranostic NPs offer a promising strategy for ovarian cancer diagnosis and treatment.
- Further development with in vivo imaging tracers is warranted for clinical translation.
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