BioProject

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) activates platelets through the action of adjacent sinusoidal cells. More...

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) activates platelets through the action of adjacent sinusoidal cells. Activated platelets bind to tumor-associated endothelial cells and release growth factors that promote tumor progression. We hypothesized that tumor inhibitors encapsulated in platelets would function as drug carriers for tumor therapy. We propose a therapeutic strategy for HCC using autologous platelets encapsulating multiple tyrosine kinase inhibitors in a rat chemically-induced HCC model. Sorafenib or lenvatinib was encapsulated in platelets isolated from tumor-bearing rats in vitro. The rats were divided into groups that received repeated intravenous injections (twice a week for 10 weeks) of the following materials: placebo, sorafenib (SOR), lenvatinib (LEN), autologous platelets, autologous platelets encapsulating sorafenib (SOR-PLT), and autologous platelets encapsulating lenvatinib (LEN-PLT). The therapeutic effect was then analyzed by ultrasonography (US) and histopathological analysis. Histopathological and US analysis demonstrated extensive tumor necrosis in the tumor tissue of SOR-PLT or LEN-PLT, but not in other experimental groups. By liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry, more abundant sorafenib was detected in tumor tissues after SOR-PLT administration than in surrounding normal tissues, but no such difference in sorafenib level was observed with SOR administration. Therefore, the use of autologous platelets encapsulating drugs might be a novel therapeutic strategy for HCC. We investigated the effect of the drug encapsulation process on the degradation of resident mRNA inherited from megakaryocytes in platelets. Overall design: Control platelets (PLT), sorafenib-encapsulated platelets (SOR-PLT), and lenvatinib-encapsulated platelets (LEN-PLT) were produced. In these three groups, the prepared platelet suspensions from five rats were pooled. Less...