AUA 2017: State-of-the-Art Lecture: Advances in Angiogenesis Inhibitors, Controlled Drug Delivery Systems and Tissue Engineering

Boston, MA (UroToday.com) Dr. Robert Langer is the invited speaker to the State-of-Art Lecture who is well recognized leader in the field biotechnology especially with an emphasis on drug delivery systems and tissue engineering. Dr. Langer starts his talk with a description of his earlier work with Dr. Folkman on angiogenesis and angiogenesis inhibitors. A chemical engineer by training he was tasked with creating a delivery system in which angiogenesis inhibitors could be inserted for controlled release. He reports that earlier work had proven impossible to encapsulate large/complex molecules which would then freely diffuse out of the delivery substance. His seminal work came in 1979 when he was able to encapsulate a unique angiogenesis inhibitor into a dense polymer with the use of organic solvents. His studies in rabbit conjunctive lead to the demonstration that large molecules could be encapsulated and with changes into polymer composition the rate of released controlled.

Today this technology is applied in vast number of medical therapeutics such as Zoladex, Avastin, and Implanon to name a few. He states that the future of drug delivery systems is in the use of nanoparticles in which would act much live viruses by inserting a segment of siRNA or mRNA to cause changes in cell function or cell death in the case of cancer.

The next segment of his talk focuses on advances in tissue engineering which his lab has been on forefront of over the last 20 years. He states that with collaboration of several clinicians from Boston Children’s hospital he was able to venture in the use of polymeric scaffolds to guide tissue growth. His early attempts have been with cartilage and with improvements in cell culture media and bioreactors he and his collaborators where able to grow cartilaginous tissues such as ears and noses in-vitro for possible future transplantation. Currently, the cartilage being grown in-vitro is histologically identical to autologous cartilage but it lacks some of its functional properties; for now is only being used for cosmetic application. More recently his lab has been using micro-polymer technology to grow skin sheets in vitro which are now being used to treated severe burns in children. The preliminary outcomes are very encouraging as with this technology there is a lack of scar formation and contractures which are typically seen with autologous skin grafts.

He ends the session discussing recent advances in nerve regeneration using polymer scaffolds. He presents the early results of the INSPIRE Trial, which aims to assess the probable benefit of the Neuro-Spinal Scaffold(TM) for safety and neurologic recovery in subjects with complete thoracic AIS A Spinal Cord Injury. The scaffold has been implanted 8 patients to date showing significant improvement in AIS grade conversion over 6 months.

Presented By: Robert Langer, Jr, ScD

Institution: Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

Written By: Andres F. Correa, MD, Society of Urologic Oncology Fellow, Fox Chase Cancer Center, Philadelphia, PA

at the 2017 AUA Annual Meeting - May 12 - 16, 2017 – Boston, Massachusetts, USA

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