Multiple myeloma (MM), a plasma cell cancer in bone marrow, remains an incurable disease. Melphalan, an alkylating agent, is a conventional anticancer drug that is still widely used for MM treatment in clinics. However, melphalaninduced organ toxicity and side effects are common. In this study, we loaded melphalan into a liposomal capsule and constituted liposomal melphalan (liposomal MEL). Liposomal MEL particles were approximately 120 nm in size and stable in vitro. The liposomal particles could be effectively taken up by MM cells. In vitro cytotoxicity assays using MM cell lines and primary MM cells showed that liposomal MEL exhibited similar anti-MM activity compared to an equivalent amount of free melphalan (free MEL) compound. In animal models, liposomal particles had bone marrow enrichment and prolonged half-life in vivo. Liposomal MEL exposure resulted in less liver and colon organ toxicity than exposure to an equivalent amount of free MEL-treated mice. Importantly, liposomal MEL had potent anti-MM activity in vivo in a human MM xenograft mouse model. Overall, our findings suggested that liposome-encapsulated melphalan was an effective drug modification of the melphalan compound and showed promise in MM treatment.
To the Editor, We read the recently published article by Kaicker S et al. 1 with great interest and would like to thank the authors for conducting this important and meaningful study. Whether coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccines impact platelet counts and bleeding in children, adolescents, and young adults (C-AYA) with preexisting immune thrombocytopenia (ITP) is unknown, which caused concerns among those families of children with preexisting ITP about vaccinating their children. Through a single-center studies of C-AYA with ITP, the authors reported that COVID-19 vaccination only had very limited effect on platelet counts and bleeding in C-AYA with ITP. They concluded that COVID-19 vaccination was safe for C-AYA with ITP. However, there are some points deserve further discussions to strengthen the worth of this article.
Polymeric micelles have been shown to be promising carriers for drug delivery. However, the present developed micelle carriers are usually based on inert materials, and the potential influence on the body still needs to be further considered. In this work, we synthesized a kind of polymeric
carrier based on hydrophobic long chain fatty alcohol (LCFA), which possesses beneficial biological properties for the human body. These polymeric carriers could self-assemble to form micelles with small sizes. Except for MPEG2k–C24, and MPEG2k–C26,
other polymeric micelles showed good blood compatibility and high biosafety. In addition, MPEG2k–C28, MPEG2k–C30 and MPEG2k–C32 micelles could efficiently encapsulate paclitaxel (PTX) with about 10% drug loading
content and >90% encapsulation efficiency. Overall, our prepared MPEG-LCFA conjugates may have potential clinical application prospects and deserve further research.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.