The Humane Research Trust is funding a research project at the University of Birmingham to test potential treatments for head and neck cancer. Harnessing an innovative 3D cell culture model, the scientists will target tumour cells with drugs using a nanoparticle drug delivery system. This will provide a way to test nanoparticle-based treatments without animal testing and help find more effective ways to treat cancer.
In the UK, head and neck cancers are the eighth most common cancer, with around 13,000 new cases every year. These cancer cells often make too much of a protein called the 'epidermal growth factor receptor'. This protein makes them grow too quickly. One potential method for tackling this issue involves drugs that block the activation of the epidermal growth factor receptor, such as tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs). Currently, there’s only one TKI drug that has regulatory approval for treating head and neck cancer. However, the response rate amongst patients is low.
The usual treatment for this type of cancer involves a combination of surgery, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy with anti-cancer drugs such as cisplatin. However, cisplatin is highly toxic and causes serious side effects, limiting the safe dose of the drug. Unfortunately, head and neck cancers often become resistant to cisplatin, making treatment no longer effective.
A new approach harnesses very small particles called nanoparticles, which are over 100 times smaller than the width of human hair. Scientists have shown that attaching drugs to nanoparticles can help drugs reach and tackle cancer cells in the body. This method is also more targeted, leading to fewer side effects for patients than traditional treatments.
More work needs to be done to develop interventions that can overcome the issues with existing head and neck cancer treatment. At the moment, these studies are mostly conducted using animals. Between 2014 and 2023 alone, 3.89 million animals were used and killed in British laboratories to study cancer. But there are major differences between animals and humans, meaning therapies that work in animals usually fail to work well in people.
The Humane Research Trust is funding a research project at the University of Birmingham to test nanoparticle-based cancer treatments in lab-grown human tumours. Led by Dr Nikolas Hodges, Reader in Cellular Toxicology, the scientists will develop an innovative 3D cell culture model of head and neck cancer. They will then use it to test novel therapeutics, using gold nanoparticles to deliver a combination of cisplatin and TKIs.
Dr Hodges’ approach involves growing 3D structures called 'spheroids'. These spheroids are comprised of human tumour cells and a non-cancerous cell type called fibroblasts. Fibroblasts are a key component of the microenvironment around tumour, and are thus an important factor in cancer development. The researchers will coat various sizes and shapes of nanoparticles with combinations of drugs and apply them to the spheroids.
They will label the particles with a fluorescent tracking dye. This will enable them to study the impact of the drugs on the tumour cells and surrounding fibroblasts. They’ll also look at the impact of factors like the surface coating, size and shape of the nanoparticles. The novel particles developed within this project could improve treatment effectiveness and minimise toxic side effects in patients. The scientists hope this work can lead to better outcomes for patients.
“We are developing new animal free models of cancer using human cells grown in the laboratory. This means scientists can test new therapies more quickly and without animal testing,” explains Dr Hodges. “Potential therapies, like the one we will develop in this project, can then be tested for effectiveness in a human model. This makes them more likely to work in patients.”
Additionally, the system offers a new way for future scientists to study drug and particle delivery and tumour biology without using animals. Going forward, this could also reduce reliance on animal studies in cancer research more broadly.
Dr Nikolas Hodges
Principal investigator
Dr Nikolas Hodges is a Reader in Cellular Toxicology at the University of Birmingham. His research group study how substances can harm our genes, how cells deal with stress from harmful molecules, and how our DNA can fix this damage. His goal is to harness this understanding to target cancer cells and improve treatments for patients.
