In U. S. Patent Application 20090306198, Dr. Robert Nicolosi (Nashua, NH) and Thomas Shea (Billerica, MA) disclose a uniform microfluidized nanoemulsion containing a synergistic combination of two antioxidants and a cell membrane stabilizer phospholipid (i.e., an anti-oxidant synergy formulation; ASF). The microfluidized nanoemulsion improves the combination's cell membrane permeability by at least four-fold over conventional nanoemulsion compositions, which significantly increases the intracellular concentration of typically cell-impermeant antioxidants (i.e., for example, tocopherol) and/or systemic bioavailability. As a nanoemulsion, synergistic combination has greater anticancer efficacy than the same combination applied as a free solution
Solid tumors arise in organs that contain stem cell populations. The tumors in these organs consist of heterogeneous populations of cancer cells that differ markedly in their ability to proliferate and form new tumors. In both breast cancers and central nervous system tumors, cancer cells differ in their ability to form tumors. While the majority of the cancer cells have a limited ability to divide, a population of cancer stem cells has an exclusive ability to extensively proliferate and form new tumors. Growing evidence suggests that pathways regulating a self-renewal of normal stem cells may be deregulated in cancer stem cells thereby resulting in a continuous expansion of self-renewing cancer cells and tumor formation. This suggests that agents that target the defective self-renewal pathways in cancer cells might lead to improved outcomes in the treatment of these diseases. Currently, challenges regarding drug delivery to solid tumors are impeding progress in this field.
Neuroblastoma, the most common of all cancers found in children, may arise from a biochemical block of cellular differentiation and a resultant continuation of a proliferative state. Neuroblastoma often spontaneously reverts by undergoing partial differentiation and ultimate degeneration. The nanoemulsion may be a useful therapeutic approach for clinical neuroblastoma comprising strategies to force neuroblastoma to differentiate. The differentiation strategy comprises a reduction in intracellular reactive oxygen species.
