Liposomes, Lipoproteins, and LipoNormans

Good morning! Well, it has not taken long to get back into the swing of things. A couple of scans and its seems that normalcy returns. This is indeed the week of busyness. Yesterday I attended Grand Rounds at Cook Children's. This was a two part presentation. The first, by Dr. Granger, was an overview of neuroblastoma, its symptoms, diagnosis, treatment, and the future of research. The second presentation was by Dr. Lacko from the University of North Texas Health Science Center. His presentation was about his work with lipoproteins. As many of you know I am doing some work on some liposomes so I found this very interesting. Both are similar models of drug delivery but have slightly different ways of going about it. In generalized terms, the idea behind this science is to utilize nanotechnology to encase chemotherapy(or other drugs) in a bubble. The job of the bubble is to carry the drug to the tumor cell and release it there. It gets far more technical than this but you can see how this idea might help to concentrate drug at the tumor site and help reduce the toxicity of the drug to other organs. It is ingenious really. I believe in the work that we are doing with liposomes. However, I enjoyed seeing some of the potential benefits of using lipoproteins. The bottom line is that lipoproteins are theoretically able to live in the body longer because they are naturally occuring within the body. The problem with this lipoprotein formulation is the potential for liver toxicity which we do not see in the liposomal formulation. In the end we are, in a way, battling semantics. Our liposome formulations have already been in adults and we are actively testing the drug in mice with neuroblastoma as we speak. The lipoprotein formulation is at least 18 months from going into humans so in my mind we are betting on the right horse. Regardless, I do think that lipoproteins might be a suitable carrier for Fenretinide and they just might help with some of that drugs delivery problems. I will at least get the parties talking. You never know what might happen.

See, I told you yesterday was busy. Today will be busy as well. This morning I am due at the studio to tape a 30 minute segment on neuroblastoma and the work that we are doing with Lunch for Life and the CNCF. It ought to be very interesting. I am looking forward to the opportunity to get the word out.

Now, finally, I think if you have hung around long enough to hear me dribble about research then you truly deserve some kind of reward. However, I also need to use this as bait to get more golfers in my golf tournament. So, here is my offer:

If you will sign up to play in my golf tournament on Friday then you can watch this really extremely cute video. This video illustrates the new method that Graham came up with to walk Norman. In fact, if you watch you will quickly realize that Norman is actually walking Graham. And actually, if you think about it, Norman is actually kind of like a liposome carrying Graham. (I just have to figure in the bubble.) Oh well, the one thing I can promise you is that this video is well worth the price of golf and the opportunity to raise money for neuroblastoma research.

Remember, only watch this video if you are going to play in the golf tournament!