Pharmacokinetic Study of PRINT-platin ® in the Treatment of Lung Cancer in Mice (2014)

Undergraduates: Thomas Flannery, Marc Kai

Faculty Advisor: Joseph DeSimone
Department: Global Studies

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This experiment compared the pharmacokinetics of PRINT ® nanoparticle-bound cisplatin (Print-platin ®) to that of free cisplatin (a common chemotherapeutic drug) in mice with the LKB498 lung cancer strain. PRINT ® is a nanoparticle formulation tool invented by Dr. Joseph DeSimone. The objective of incorporating a chemotherapy drug into a nanoparticle is to target the drug more directly towards the tumor, thus increasing the effectiveness of the treatment and reducing systemic toxicity. Mice infected with the LKB498 cancer strain were used to investigate this effect in this experiment. Half of the mice were injected with PRINT-platin ® and half were injected with free cisplatin at the same dosage. At 5 time points after injection (5 min, 30 min, 1 hour, 6 hours, and 24 hours), 3 mice treated with PRINT-platin ® and 3 mice treated with free cisplatin were euthanized for organ harvesting. Organ samples were then analyzed for platinum concentration using an inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry apparatus. Changes in platinum concentration were representative of changes in cisplatin concentration over time after injection. Experimental data showed that, compared to free cisplatin, PRINT-platin ® circulated in the bloodstream for longer and accumulated in the tumor more effectively. It also showed that PRINT-platin ® accumulated in the kidney less than free cisplatin, which is important because cisplatin has significant renal toxicity.