Intra-Arterial Delivery
Intra-Arterial delivery is the process by which a therapeutic can be given to a patient through a catheter placed directly into an arterial passageway or the spinal cord to allow the drug direct access to cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) transport. The catheter can either be attached to an external port for a syringe or IV infusion or to an implanted drug delivery pump such as an Ommaya reservoir.
Intra-Arterial delivery is designed to provide a more direct delivery of a therapeutic to a targeted space without the typical disadvantages of general IV or oral administration. In the case of CSN-based issues, delivery aids in getting the therapeutic directly into the CSF to minimize the impact of the Blood-Brain Barrier (BBB).
Intra-Arterial delivery has been primarily used for pain medication to treat chronic back and neck pain, sciatica, cancer, and reflex sympathetic dystrophy or complex regional pain syndrome. In recent years, several medical technology companies have looked to using intraarterial delivery via an implanted pump to transport chemotherapeutics to treat gliomas. NeOnc’s Chairman and CEO, Dr. Thomas Chen, has been instrumental in developing one of the first smart implantable pumps for the metronomic delivery of chemotherapeutics.
Crossing the Barrier
When treating brain-based diseases such as gliomas, intraarterial delivery still has the same issue as traditional delivery methods: how to transport the therapeutic past the BBB. Though an arterial or spinal cord catheter can deliver a drug into a cerebral passageway, and in the case of the spinal cord catheter directly into the CSF, the BBB will restrict drug delivery into the brain tissue.
NeOnc’s POH formulations can potentially overcome this hurdle by conjugating the therapeutic into a small molecule lipophilic structure, which can pass through the tight junction of the BBB’s endothelial cells.
For Intra-Arterial delivery, the arterial pathway that feeds the tumor is identified, and then a catheter is fed through the supplying artery directly to the tumor site. The POH-based combinatorial agent is then injected into the tumor site, which can be absorbed through the BBB into the tumor. Essentially, this is equivalent to creating a temporary opening through the BBB to allow for highly targeted delivery of a chemotherapeutic to a cancerous tumor. Once treatment is completed, the catheter is withdrawn, and the BBB naturally seals the penetration without damaging the surrounding healthy tissue.