Srinivas Sridhar, PhD
Northeastern University
Targeted PARP Inhibitor Nanotherapy for Ovarian Cancer
PARP inhibitor therapy has shown promising results in clinical trials for ovarian cancer, but oral administration of these drugs requires high doses leading to toxic side effects, and very little drug actually reaches the tumors. Dr. Sridhar and colleagues have synthesized nano-scale formulations of Olaparib and Talazoparic, two promising PARP inhibitors, which can be injected intravenously. In mice, these nanoformulations are more effective than the oral version of the drug at treating ovarian cancer, but there are still off-target effects and toxicities in other organs. In this study, Dr. Sridhar will engineer a targeted nanoformulation of Olaparib and Talazoparib, meaning the molecules will specifically target the tumor and bypass other organs. He predicts these targeted drugs will be 100X more effective than the oral version of the drug with greatly reduced toxicity. More than half of ovarian cancer patients could benefit from treatment with these targeted PARP inhibitor therapies.