[b]NVLX News Completed Clinical Trial Further Indicates Cell-in-a-Box® Encapsulation Technology Has the Potential to Treat a Wide Array of Solid Tumors
2012-03-15 10:43 ET - News Release
Cell-in-a-Box® Technology Enables Active Chemotherapy Drug to be Localized to Tumor Region
Company Website: www.nuvilex.com
SILVER SPRING, Md. -- (Business Wire)
Nuvilex, Inc. (OTCQB:NVLX), an emerging biotechnology provider of cell and gene therapy solutions through its ongoing acquisition of the assets of SG Austria, realizes the important role for Cell-in-a-Box® technology, and what it offers the medical community, and aims today to discuss the potential it will serve as a treatment option for a variety of solid tumors.
As discussed previously, the Cell-in-a-Box® technology involves the encapsulating, or encasing of live cells in a specially created cotton-based capsule. The cell-type chosen, in the case of cancer treatment it is a cytochrome P450 expressing cell, is chosen for the disease and then is ultimately placed beside or within the target tumor while the cells remain inside the capsule. For cancer, once a patient receives the drug to be converted, the encapsulated cells transform this into an active chemotherapeutic. As a result, a high concentration of the drug is provided locally to the tumor.
Although the original human clinical trials were limited to pancreatic cancer tumors, later work showed the Cell-in-a-Box®encapsulation technology has great potential for use in other solid tumors. The work also pointed toward encapsulated cells expressing more than one drug-activating enzyme as being of potential value in treating other cancers, indicating the possibility of combination drug therapies targeted by one or more encapsulated cell product(s) being placed in or near the tumor to cause a high level of chemotherapy at the site it’s intended for.
Most chemotherapy drugs affect both normal and cancerous tissue, which is why they are so toxic to naturally fast-growing cells in the body, such as hair follicles and intestinal cells. By using encapsulated cytochrome P450 expressing cells to convert the drug locally and then placing them close to or in a tumor, much less active drug is available to cause harm to healthy normal cells and instead its localized high concentration remains in the tumor region, irrespective of solid tumor type being [/b]treated, and thereby can increase elimination of the tumor cells.
