Design and development of silk-elastinlike protein polymer liquid embolics for treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma

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Title Design and development of silk-elastinlike protein polymer liquid embolics for treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma
Publication Type dissertation
School or College College of Engineering
Department Biomedical Engineering
Author Poursaid, Azadeh
Date 2016
Description Globally, hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) of the liver is diagnosed in over 700,000 people annually and trends indicate increasing prevalence. The majority of cases, >80%, are detected at advanced stages where systemic chemotherapies have little efficacy. The primary curative treatment is liver transplant, but if a donor liver is not available, only palliative care such as transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) is possible. TACE targets the tumor blood supply. An embolic containing a chemotherapeutic agent is injected into the tumor's vasculature via an endovascular catheter, subsequently shutting down blood flow while delivering localized chemotherapy. A presently approved product, Lipiodol, is an oily emulsion mixed with a chemotherapeutic used in conjunction with gelatin particles or synthetic polymer beads that act as emboli. Calibrated spherical drug eluting beads are now gaining favor for this procedure, replacing the multistep oil emulsion system. These beads, however, have shortcomings: aggregation of smaller diameter beads, fracturing of beads while under strain in the catheter, off target embolization particularly in pulmonary circulation, elution of only charged small molecule therapeutics, nondegradability, limited tumor depth penetration, and revascularization induced by a hypoxic state. To address these limitations, a genetically engineered silk-elastinlike protein polymer (SELP) system was developed to create a liquid-to-solid embolic agent capable of retaining and releasing a wider range of therapeutics, controlled degradation into nontoxic amino acids, and soluble until injected into the body where they transition irreversibly to a solid hydrogel network. This provides potential for ideal injectability as a low viscosity fluid at room temperature followed by optimal embolization by a highly stable hydrogel at body temperature. The proposed research involved engineering a SELP formulation with suitable viscosity for injection into the tumor vasculature via a microcatheter and a suitable gelation rate and gel strength for stable embolization. The drug release properties of the polymer matrix were determined for small molecule chemotherapeutics such as doxorubicin and anti-angiogenic sorafenib. Preliminary in vivo performance of the novel system for TACE was evaluated using a rodent model. Future directions include expansion of in vivo studies, particularly in an animal model for HCC and TACE to study therapeutic efficacy and longterm biocompatibility.
Type Text
Publisher University of Utah
Subject hepatocellular carcinoma; Liquid embolic; protein polymer; recombinant polymers; SELP; TACE
Dissertation Name Doctor of Philosophy
Language eng
Rights Management ©Azadeh Poursaid
Format application/pdf
Format Medium application/pdf
Format Extent 2,906,338 bytes
Identifier etd3/id/4322
ARK ark:/87278/s6z92mst
Setname ir_etd
ID 197867
Reference URL https://collections.lib.utah.edu/ark:/87278/s6z92mst
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