Researchers headed by teams at the Advanced Science Research Center at the CUNY Graduate Center (CUNY ASRC) and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center have developed what they describe as a groundbreaking approach to using specially designed peptides as excipients to improve nanoparticle drug formulations. Preclinical tests showed that their method could significantly enhance the antitumor efficacy of a peptide-drug formulation containing the JAK2/FLT3 inhibitor lestaurtinib in acute myeloid leukemia models.

“This breakthrough enables the development of better precision medicines,” said co-principal investigator Daniel Heller, PhD, head of the Cancer Nanomedicine Laboratory at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center’s Molecular Pharmacology Program. “Using specially designed peptides, we can build nanomedicines that make existing drugs more effective and less toxic and even enable the development of drugs that might not be able to work without these nanoparticles… Continue reading.