A new approach that integrates a minimally invasive, painless microneedle platform may help monitor protein biomarkers in responses to a combination immunotherapy against melanoma.
The platform is capable of absorbing the cell-surrounding, biomarker-containing fluid from deeper layers of the skin with an ultra-sensitive, single-molecule detection method (Simoa) that detects often rare, yet relevant biomarkers with higher sensitivity than conventional methods.
The researchers provided proof-of-concept for their approach in a mouse melanoma model in which they treated cancerous lesions with a novel therapy. The therapy acts locally on tumor lesions in that it combines non-invasive focused ultrasound (FUS), which generates heat at the tumor site to instantly kill tumor cells, with the delivery of a previously developed nanoparticle-bound activator of an inflammation-inducing protein known as stimulator of interferon genes (STING).
The findings appear in Advanced Functional Materials.
“Rapid readout of the responses to melanoma therapy using microneedles may enable effective drug screening and patient stratification to maximize therapeutic benefits,” says study author and Wyss Associate Faculty member Natalie Artzi, Ph.D., in a news release. Dr. Artzi is also an Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School (HMS) and a Principal Research Scientist at the Institute for Medical Engineering and Science at MIT in Boston.
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The co-author of this research is Technion Professor Haim Azhari.
