Cancer therapies have a notoriously long list of potential side-effects and treatment-induced toxicities, which can impede effective treatment and unnecessarily reduce a patient’s quality of life. In a recent study (https://lnkd.in/eqHtFDSv) Zhou et al. (2022) investigated the safety, pharmacokinetics, and biodistribution of perfluorocarbon (PFC) nanoparticles carrying rapamycin.
Rapamycin PFC nanoparticles were formulated by high-pressure emulsion to create a lipid film embedded with rapamycin surrounding a PFC core. To evaluate the efficacy of these nanoparticles on kidney function, the researchers assessed BUN levels, using K024-H1/H5, for mice 48 hours after cisplatin exposure that were either treated with free rapamycin, rapamycin PFC nanoparticles, or only exposure to cisplatin. They found that rapamycin loaded nanoparticles were significantly more effective at mitigating kidney damage than the free rapamycin.
To further characterize the mechanisms and pharmacokinetics, kidney cells (NRK-52E) were subjected to cisplatin injury and rapamycin treatments in vitro. Their analyses suggest rapamycin PFC nanoparticles enhance autophagy and inhibit inflammation. It’s suspected that the difference observed between free rapamycin and rapamycin nanoparticles is likely due to the different local effects on tissues, with the nanoparticles facilitating a slower and more consistent release of the drug, diffusing directly from the lipid film into targeted tissues. The authors also evaluated the safety in terms of vital organ function, immune response, and the potential to use the nanoparticles as a vehicle for other pharmacotherapies showing great promise for future drug development.
Our DetectX® Urea Nitrogen (BUN) Colorimetric Detection Kits (K024-H1/H5) are a unique way to quantify BUN in a variety of samples and has been relied upon by academics, pharmaceutical, and clinical scientists for over a decade. Generating high optical densities, reliable results in just 30 minutes, inter-and intra-assay precision of less than 4.5%, and all with room temperature stability, this kit is the standard for measuring BUN.
