A novel lipiodol Pickering emulsion stabilized by iron-doped carbon nanozymes (ICN-LPE), developed by Chief Physician Zhang Bo's team at the Sixth Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, has been shown to significantly enhance the efficacy of liver cancer treatment through dual-therapeutic chemoembolization.
This breakthrough was recently published in Advanced Science. This innovative emulsion, which combines traditional chemotherapy with chemodynamic therapy, has the potential to significantly improve treatment outcomes for liver cancer patients, offering new hope in the ongoing battle against this devastating disease.
Liver cancer is the sixth most prevalent malignant tumor globally and the fourth leading cause of cancer-related deaths. Transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) has long been a standard treatment for advanced-stage liver cancer. This procedure involves injecting a mixture of chemotherapy drugs and an embolic agent, typically iodized oil, into the hepatic artery to block the tumor's blood supply while simultaneously delivering localized chemotherapy.
However, conventional iodized oil emulsions have significant drawbacks. Their poor stability leads to rapid stratification, resulting in short retention times and uneven release of chemotherapy drugs at the tumor site, which limits treatment efficacy. Additionally, these emulsions are prone to inducing drug resistance, contributing to high recurrence rates and limited survival benefits for patients.
To address these challenges, Professor Zhang Bo's team has developed a stable lipiodol Pickering emulsion using iron-doped carbon nanozymes (ICN). This innovative emulsion not only resolves the stability issues associated with traditional lipiodol emulsions but also enables sustained release of chemotherapy drugs.
Compared with conventional Lipiodol emulsions, ICN-LPE demonstrates significantly enhanced antitumor efficacy.
In preclinical studies, ICN-LPE showed superior performance compared to conventional iodized oil emulsions, significantly inhibiting tumor growth rates and reducing tumor volumes.
Moreover, within the experimental dosage range, ICN-LPE showed no significant histological damage to major organs such as the heart, lungs, spleen, and kidneys, indicating excellent biocompatibility and safety.
This research offers an innovative solution to overcome the limitations of traditional TACE and highlights the immense potential of nanozyme materials in tumor interventional therapy. As a novel multifunctional embolic agent, ICN-LPE holds promise as a powerful tool for future liver cancer interventional treatments, offering new hope for improved survival outcomes for patients with advanced-stage liver cancer.
Reporter | Chen Jinxia
Photo | Sixth Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University
Editor | Hu Nan, James, Shen He
