Nanocarrier-Cell Surface Adhesive and Hydrodynamic Interactions: Ligand-Receptor Bond Sensitivity Study

A systematic review of modeling and simulation approaches in designing targeted treatment technologies for Leukemia Cancer in low and middle income countries

Virtual experimentation is a widely used approach for predicting systems behaviour especially in situations where resources for physical experiments are very limited. For example, targeted treatment inside the human body is particularly challenging, and as such, modeling and simulation is utilised to aid planning before a specific treatment is administered. In such approaches, precise treatment, as it is the case in radiotherapy, is used to administer a maximum dose to the infected regions while minimizing the effect on normal tissue. Complicated cancers such as leukemia present even greater challenges due to their presentation in liquid form and not being localised in one area. As such, science has led to the development of targeted drug delivery, where the infected cells can be specifically targeted anywhere in the body. Despite the great prospects and advances of these modeling and simulation tools in the design and delivery of targeted drugs, their use by Low and Middle Income Countries (LMICs) researchers and clinicians is still very limited. This paper therefore reviews the modeling and simulation approaches for leukemia treatment using nanoparticles as an example for virtual experimentation. A systematic review from various databases was carried out for studies that involved cancer treatment approaches through modeling and simulation with emphasis to data collected from LMICs. Results indicated that whereas there is an increasing trend in the use of modeling and simulation approaches, their uptake in LMICs is still limited. According to the review data collected, there is a clear need to employ these tools as key approaches for the planning of targeted drug treatment approaches.

An in silico analysis of nanoparticle/cell diffusive transfer: application to nano-artificial antigen-presenting cell:T-cell interaction

Polymeric nanoparticles (nano-paAPCs) modified with T-cell antigens and encapsulating immunostimulatory or immunoinhibitory factors may act as artificial antigen-presenting cells to circulating immune cells, improving the selective delivery of encapsulated drug or cytokine to antigen-specific T-cells. Paracrine delivery of encapsulated agents from these nanoparticles to adjacent cells facilitate sustained delivery lowering the overall administered dose, thus enhancing the overall drug efficacy while reducing toxicity of pleiotropic factors. Little is known mathematically regarding the local concentration of released agent that accumulates around a nanoparticle that is near or embeds in a cell. These concentration fields are calculated here in an attempt to understand paracrine efficacy of these nano-paAPC systems. The significant factor accumulation that can occur if the particles were to embed in the cell membrane may explain observed experimental data regarding enhanced T-cell activation and nanoparticle-mediated improvement in the drug delivery process to non-internalizing cellular targets.

FROM THE CLINICAL EDITOR

In this interesting article, the authors utilized nanosized polymeric artificial presenting cells (nano-paAPC) that released cytokine to study the effects after interaction with T cells. It was found that nano-paAPC were able to embed into cell membrane, with subsequent enhanced T-cell activation. The findings provide further understanding of immune cell interaction and are considered to be important for designing nanoparticles engineered to deliver cytokines or immumodulatory factors to specific immune cells.

Nanocarrier Hydrodynamics and Binding in Targeted Drug Delivery: Challenges in Numerical Modeling and Experimental Validation

This review discusses current progress and future challenges in the numerical modeling of targeted drug delivery using functionalized nanocarriers (NC). Antibody coated nanocarriers of various size and shapes, also called functionalized nanocarriers, are designed to be injected in the vasculature, whereby they undergo translational and rotational motion governed by hydrodynamic interaction with blood particulates as well as adhesive interactions mediated by the surface antibody binding to target antigens/receptors on cell surfaces. We review current multiscale modeling approaches rooted in computational fluid dynamics and nonequilibrium statistical mechanics to accurately resolve fluid, thermal, as well as adhesive interactions governing nanocarrier motion and their binding to endothelial cells lining the vasculature. We also outline current challenges and unresolved issues surrounding the modeling methods. Experimental approaches in pharmacology and bioengineering are discussed briefly from the perspective of model validation.