An Advanced Injectable Hydrogel Raises Hopes Of Transforming Cancer Treatment

Going by the data made available by the International Agency for Research on Cancer, 1.7 million new cancer cases would be detected annually by 2030 in India. This is even as a growing number of patient-pool is in the requirement of advanced treatments and those that are not easily accessible due to cost and availability factors. The latest is that researchers from IIT Guwahati and Bose Institute Kolkata have hinted at an advanced injectable hydrogel that has been developed for localised cancer treatment. This thera-py delivers anti-cancer drugs directly to tumor sites, significantly reducing the side ef-fects typically associated with conventional cancer treatments.

The findings of this re-search have been published in the prestigious Materials Horizons, a journal of the Roy-al Society of Chemistry. The paper is co-authored by Prof. Debapratim Das and his re-search scholars Tanushree Das and Ritvika Kushwaha and collaborators Dr. Kuldip Ja-na, Satyajit Halder and Anup Kumar Misra. Cancer continues to be a pressing global health challenge, with millions of patients affected worldwide. Current treatments, such as chemotherapy and surgical interventions, often have severe limitations. Surgi-cal removal of tumors is sometimes not feasible, particularly for internal organs, while chemotherapy’s systemic delivery often results in harmful side effects by affecting both cancerous and healthy cells.

In the latest study, these challenges have been addressed by designing a hydrogel that delivers drugs precisely to the tumor site, ensuring localized action. Hydrogels are wa-ter-based, three-dimensional polymer networks capable of absorbing and retaining flu-ids. Their unique structure mimics living tissues, making them suitable for biomedical applications. The hydrogel acts as a stable reservoir for anti-cancer drugs and releases them in a controlled manner, responding to specific conditions in the tumor microenvi-ronment. It is learnt that the hydrogel, composed of ultra-short peptides – biocompat-ible and biodegradable building blocks of proteins – is designed to remain insoluble in biological fluids, ensuring it stays localized at the injection site.

It responds to elevated glutathione (GSH) levels, a molecule abundant in tumor cells. Upon encountering high GSH levels, the hydrogel triggers a controlled drug release directly into the tumor, minimizing its interaction with healthy tissues and reducing systemic side effects. This work exemplifies how scientific innovation can directly address the pressing needs of cancer treatment.

The hydrogel’s unique properties allow it to work in harmony with the biological envi-ronment and deliver precise results. There is all-round excitement given the innova-tion’s potential to transform our thoughts about localized drug delivery. During pre-clinical trials on a murine model of breast cancer, the hydrogel showed remarkable ef-ficacy. A single injection loaded with the chemotherapy drug Doxorubicin, resulted in a nearly 75 per cent reduction in tumor size within 18 days while the hydrogel remained localized at the tumor site.

The good thing is that further studies are underway in order to find out the maximum amount of reduction in the size of the tumor by a single dose. Researchers are also looking into other types of tumors. Once all the studies are com-plete, they will go about their clinical trial. What is needed is an appropriate partner to help academic researchers to do the same. Once that happens, it will be a game changer in cancer treatment.