Chemotherapy, as one of the "three pillars" of cancer treatment, although it can inhibit the growth of cancer cells, it has become a double-edged sword due to its lack of precision. On the 2nd, it was learned from Southeast University that the university's chief professor, Liang Gaolin, led a team to develop a new delivery strategy for "release and capture" drugs, which can enable chemotherapy drugs to more accurately "lock" onto the tumor site and exert their effects for a long time. This strategy significantly improved the chemotherapy effect in the mouse breast cancer model. The relevant results were recently published in the international journal "Biomaterials". In recent years, in order to improve the targeting of chemotherapy drugs, researchers have developed many drug delivery systems based on nanocarriers, but their actual targeting efficiency is not satisfactory. How to make drugs' establish a foothold and continue to fight 'in tumor lesions is an urgent challenge that needs to be overcome in the field of nanomedicine The co corresponding author of the paper, Liang Gaolin, introduced. Faced with these challenges, Liang Gaolin led a team to design a new type of nanocomposite. Inside the complex, they modified the chemotherapy drug camptothecin (CPT) onto a structurally specific peptide designed by the team, forming a water-soluble CPT prodrug molecule Nap Fyp CPT. The "shell" of the composite is a porous silica nanocarrier. "We injected nanocomposites into mice with breast cancer. When the complex reaches the vicinity of the tumor, the slightly acidic environment of the tumor triggers the release of prodrug molecules from the nanocarrier. Subsequently, the highly expressed alkaline phosphatase (ALP) on the surface of the tumor cell membrane will 'eat' the phosphate radical in the prodrug molecule, form nanofibers, and build a layer of hydrogel on the surface of the tumor cell membrane. Under the action of hydrogel, the nanocomposite will be firmly attached to the tumor cell membrane, and the prodrug molecules in it will enter the tumor cell. " Liang Gaolin introduced that after entering the cell, prodrug molecules release the active chemotherapy drug camptothecin, which attacks tumor cells, effectively increasing the drug concentration inside the cell and prolonging the drug's retention time at the tumor site. According to Wang Rui, co corresponding author of the paper and researcher at the School of Biological Sciences and Medical Engineering, Southeast University, the team injected nanocomposites into mice twice within 14 days and found that they inhibited tumor growth, increasing the targeted utilization rate of chemotherapy drugs to 5% to 15%. Liang Gaolin stated that this drug delivery strategy provides a new pathway to address issues such as poor targeting, significant side effects, and loss of healthy cells in traditional chemotherapy methods. If it enters clinical practice, it is expected to customize more efficient and personalized treatment plans for metastatic tumors that are difficult to surgically remove. (New Society)