Commentary: Local chemotherapy with nanoparticles: A ray of light in the dark?

Our plain-English summary of Commentary: Local chemotherapy with nanoparticles: A ray of light in the dark?, by S. Nakamura, T.F. Chen-Yoshikawa (The Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, 2020).

The study

• Authors: S. Nakamura, T.F. Chen-Yoshikawa
• Journal: The Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery
• Published: 2020;160(3):e169-e170
• Type of article: Editorial, Comment
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher

In plain English

This article was a short commentary, not an original study. The two authors, from the Department of Thoracic Surgery at Nagoya University in Japan, discussed a separate study by Chu and colleagues in the same journal. According to the commentary, Chu and colleagues delivered the chemotherapy drug paclitaxel, loaded into pH-triggered expansile nanoparticles, into the chest cavity of mice with malignant pleural mesothelioma and reported improved survival. The commentary said the nanoparticles preferentially accumulated in tumors and released the drug over time. The commentary authors raised two questions for future work. First, paclitaxel is not a typical first-line drug for this disease; for patients with advanced-stage disease, platinum combined with pemetrexed is usually standard. New nanoparticle designs are therefore needed for more hydrophilic drugs such as pemetrexed, gemcitabine and platinum-based drugs. Second, Chu and colleagues used only one aggressive biphasic cell line, MSTO-211H. Similar results with other cell lines, such as a monophasic epithelioid line, would make the findings more reliable. The authors concluded that the results highlight the promise of the strategy within multimodality therapy. The commentary did not discuss asbestos.

We wrote this plain-English summary from the full article with the help of AI, and a second AI model checked each sentence against the article. It is not the authors' wording; the abstract and the article are their own account.

What the study did and found

• Design: commentary on another study (Chu and colleagues) published in the same journal; not original research
• Who was studied: No population was studied by these authors; the commentary discusses Chu and colleagues' orthotopic mouse (murine) model of malignant pleural mesothelioma, which used a single mesothelioma cell line, MSTO-211H
• Exposure: No asbestos exposure was studied; the treatment discussed was intrathoracic delivery of paclitaxel loaded into pH-triggered expansile nanoparticles
• Main results:
  • According to the commentary, Chu and colleagues reported improved survival in their mouse model of malignant pleural mesothelioma (finding of the other study, not of this commentary)
  • According to the commentary, the paclitaxel-loaded nanoparticles in Chu and colleagues' study preferentially accumulated in tumors and released the drug over time
  • The commentary authors noted that paclitaxel is not a typical first-line regimen for malignant pleural mesothelioma; platinum combined with pemetrexed is usually standard therapy for patients with advanced-stage disease
  • The commentary authors stated that additional nanoparticle constructs are needed to carry more hydrophilic drugs such as pemetrexed, gemcitabine and platinum-based drugs
• The authors' conclusion: The authors concluded that Chu and colleagues' results highlight the promise of the nanoparticle strategy as a treatment option within multimodality therapy for malignant pleural mesothelioma
• Limitations the authors state:
  • The commentary authors pointed out that Chu and colleagues' results came from only one aggressive biphasic cell line (MSTO-211H), and that results with other cell lines, such as a monophasic epithelioid line, would make the findings more reliable
  • The commentary authors noted that paclitaxel, the drug tested, is not a typical first-line chemotherapy for malignant pleural mesothelioma

Topics

The National Library of Medicine indexes this study under subjects our site covers: Mesothelioma.

Medical terms in this study, explained in our Lexicon: Chemotherapy.

Related studies

• Commentary: One nano-step for murinekind, one giant leap for mesothelioma — J.S. Dutcher, J. D'Cunha (2020)
• Commentary: Go small or go home — A.W. Kim, U. Ahmad (2020)
• Nanoparticle tumor localization, disruption of autophagosomal trafficking, and prolonged drug delivery improve survival in peritoneal mesothelioma — R. Liu, A.H. Colby, et al. (2016)
• Paclitaxel-loaded expansile nanoparticles enhance chemotherapeutic drug delivery in mesothelioma 3-dimensional multicellular spheroids — H. Lei, S.C. Hofferberth, et al. (2015)
• Paclitaxel-loaded expansile nanoparticles in a multimodal treatment model of malignant mesothelioma — M.D. Schulz, K.A. Zubris, et al. (2011)
• In vitro cytotoxicity of oxide nanoparticles: comparison to asbestos, silica, and the effect of particle solubility — T.J. Brunner, P. Wick, et al. (2006)

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