Issues

Ovarian cancer is the deadliest gynecologic malignancy in developed countries, but progress in developing new therapies has been elusive. A novel targeted delivery system was developed by conjugating a urokinase plasminogen activator antibody with liposomal nanobins (as shown in the figure) to specifically deliver a therapeutic cargo (arsenic trioxide) into ovarian cancer cells. The targeted nanobins were efficiently internalized by cancer cells and reduced tumor burden in a xenograft model of ovarian cancer through the efficient induction of apoptosis. Urokinase system-targeted delivery of nanobins could serve as a new platform for the treatment of malignancies overexpressing urokinase, including ovarian and breast cancers. For details, see article by Zhang and colleagues, on page 2628.