Abstract:Like normal organs, tumors need to establish a blood supply to satisfy their demand for oxygen and nutrients and accomplish other metabolic functions. However, tumor vessels display considerable variation in the patterning and properties, as well as in their responses to vessel targeted therapy. Based on the potential vulnerabilities that could be targeted in vascular system, we developed several nanorobotic drugs to selectively infarct tumor vessels or modulate microenvironmental components to achieve safe and effective antitumor therapy. For achieving targeted tumor vessel occlusion, we have designed an autonomous, tubular DNA nanorobots capable of specifically binding to the tumor vascular endothelium and presenting the coagulation protease thrombin to locally induce tumor infarction and necrosis. We also developed the intelligent polymer and peptide nanodrugs that deplete intratumoral platelets, dramatically enhancing the permeability of tumor vessels and thus stimulating the accumulation of chemotherapeutic drugs within tumor tissues. With this seminal work in the development of nanorobot based anticancer therapeutics, it may be asserted that ‘swallowing the doctor’ may not be too far away.
李素萍，国家纳米科学中心研究员，博士生导师。入选国家万人计划“青年拔尖”人才、北京市杰青。2011年毕业于北京航空航天大学获博士学位，2015-2017年先后于美国约翰霍普金斯大学医学院和麻省理工学院（MIT）访学合作。研究成果以第一或通讯作者发表在Nature Biotechnology, Nature Biomedical Engineering, Nano letters, Nature Communications等期刊；实现专利转化3项。成果入选2018年中国科学十大进展，入选美国The Scientist 2018“Top Technical Advances”，入选“十三五”科技创新成果展；荣获北京市自然科学奖一等奖（第二完成人），中国药学会科学技术二等奖（第四完成人）等。