High Precision Image-guided Puncture Therapy
- IVR focusing on tumor immunity/metabolism: Molecular biology study for drug delivery of immune/metabolism modulating agents by IVR
- Innovative liquid embolic material development: development of liquid embolic material that is non-adhesive and less reactive to foreign body unlike conventional ones
- Novel drug/device development for non-vascular IVR: development of CT-guided marking agent and ablation device for small animal
New development of sustained release DDS for immune checkpoint inhibitor
These are a part of our recent research themes.
We are working on the development of new lipiodol emulsion for sustained release of an immune checkpoint inhibitor (anti-PD-L1 antibody). Anti-PD-L1 antibody is systemically administered to treat hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in cancer immunotherapy. However, its therapeutic effect is not satisfactory, suggesting that there is a more room for improvement. Recently, there has been a report on lipiodol-Pickering emulsion, a drug delivery system (DDS) with a high sustained-release performance.
Therefore, in our research, we intend to develop lipiodol-Pickering emulsion that releases anti-PD-L1 antibody in a sustained manner and apply it to HCC treatment.
As a result of in vitro study, we have successfully developed lipiodol-Pickering emulsion that is superior in sustained release of anti-PD-L1 antibody as shown below.
We will further advance the research by preparing a rat HCC model for hepatic arterial infusion using a catheter.
Our final goal is to improve the prognosis of HCC patients by linking the study to the development of new cancer immunotherapy with higher efficacy and its clinical application.
