Artificial Cells for Use in Cancers

Dear Colleagues,

The goal of this series is to connect the different branches of this highly interdisciplinary area through publications spread over many different specialty journals so that information can be available to all those involved in cancer research.

It is only in recent years that the original idea of artificial cells has been extensively explored and developed.

Artificial cell configuration has evolved into bioencapsulation, nanoparticles, nanocapsules, PEG proteins, liposomes, biodegradable nanoparticles, synthetic cells, and others. Its first use in cancer therapy was shown in 1971 using artificial cells containing asparaginase to suppress lymphosarcoma in mice. Others have extended this to PEG-asparaginase for leukemia in patients. Targeting has been carried out using surface ligands or magnetic properties, surface charges, polysaccharides, antibodies, and polyethylene glycol (PEG). Polylactide (PLA) artificial cells containing PolyHb-tyrosinase have been found to be effective in suppressing the growth of melanoma in a mice model. Polylactide PLA is biodegradable and FDA-approved and has been used to prepare artificial cells, and it has been developed extensively worldwide in the form of PLGA nanoparticles, polymersomes, and nanocapsules. Docetaxel-loaded PLGA nanoparticles have been found to improve efficacy in taxane-resistant triple-negative breast cancer, while another group has reported the use of nanoparticles in cancer detection via Raman-scattering-based techniques. Lysozyme and DNAse-loaded poly biodegradable nanocapsules have also been used.

Dr. Thomas Ming Swi Chang
Guest Editor

Dr. Binglan Yu 
Co-Guest Editor

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