Bacteria-Enabled Autonomous Drug Delivery Systems: Development, Characterization of Intratumoral Transport and Modeling

Systemic chemotherapy is a major therapeutic approach for nearly all types and stages of cancer. Success of this treatment depends not only on the efficacy of the therapeutics but also on the transport of the drug to all tumor cells in sufficient concentrations. Intratumoral drug transport is limited by characteristics of the tumor microenvironment such as elevated interstitial pressure and sparse, irregular vascularization. Moreover, poor tumor selectivity, leads to systemic toxicity. Bacteria possess a host of characteristics that address the aforementioned challenges in conventional drug delivery approaches including tumor selectivity, preferential tumor colonization, effective tumor penetration, which can be augmented via genetic engineering. However, in clinical trials conducted to date, bacteria have rarely been able to inhibit tumor growth solely by their presence in the tumor. The overall goal of this doctoral dissertation is to develop a novel tumor treatment system based on Salmonella Typhimurium VNP20009 (genetically modified for preferential tumor colonization and attenuation) coupled with biodegradable copolymer, poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) nanoparticles, hereafter referred to as NanoBEADS (Nanoscale Bacteria Enabled Autonomous Drug Delivery System). To this end, a NanoBEADS fabrication procedure that is robust and repeatable was established and a microfluidic chemotaxis-based sorting platform for the separation NanoBEADS from unattached nanoparticles was developed. The transport efficacy of NanoBEADS compared to the commonly used passively-diffusing nanoparticle was investigated in vitro and in vivo and the intratumoral penetration of the therapeutic vectors was quantified using a custom image processing algorithm. The mechanism of intratumoral penetration was elucidated through 2D and 3D invasion assays. Lastly, we developed a biophysical model of intratumoral transport of NanoBEADS based on the intratumoral penetration experimental results towards the theoretical evaluation of the drug transport profile following the administration of NanoBEADS.

Name thesis:degree_name

PHD

Level thesis:degree_level

doctoral

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Mechanical Engineering

Department dc:contributor.department

Mechanical Engineering

Grantor dc:publisher

Virginia Tech

Year dc:date.issued

2017

Author dc:creator

• Suh, SeungBeum

Chair dc:contributor.committeechair

• Behkam, Bahareh

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Battaglia, Francine
• Dervisis, Nikolaos G.
• Tafti, Danesh K.
• Scharf, Birgit E.

• Tumor targeting bacteria
• Cancer treatment
• Bio-hybrid microrobotics

Statement dc:rights

• In Copyright

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Dc Identifier Other

vt_gsexam:12294

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/87560