EMBR-31. DEVELOPMENT OF INJECTABLE POLYSACCHARIDE HYDROGEL TO ENHANCE DRUG PENETRATION IN PEDIATRIC BRAIN TUMORS

Improving unacceptable low response rates and reducing acute and long-term morbidities remain significant challenges in pediatric neuro-oncology. Chemotherapy is an effective primary or adjuvant treatment for pediatric disease, but current administration approaches hinder the pharmacological activity exerted by chemotherapy treatments. Barriers in the route of drug administration and in the tumor microenvironment limit anticancer drugs from penetrating tissue efficiently and reaching all cancer cells. Strategies have been proposed to overcome these barriers with hope of leading to sustained and elongated drug exposure in solid tumors. However, few methods have been explored to design drug delivery systems to circumvent these barriers with potential to enhance drug penetration and reduce adverse systemic side effects in treating pediatric brain tumors. In this study, we validate an injectable polysaccharide hydrogel capable of releasing drugs locally at tumor site, sustaining drug concentration, and eliciting tumor response. We synthesized a hydrogel with dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) incorporating amylopectin, a polysaccharide found in starch, loaded with doxorubicin. We determined the structure of doxorubicin is not altered when released from the hydrogel through characterization of drug-loaded and unloaded hydrogels, suggesting drug is encapsulated in the hydrogel network and is able to maintain structure to induce mechanism of action. We tested sustained release of drug and therapeutic efficacy in vitro with DAOY, a medulloblastoma cell line. Our approach demonstrates that local drug delivery presents potential to enhance drug penetration in pediatric brain tumors by sustaining drug concentration at tumor site for an extended period of time. Local drug delivery systems have been investigated for decades but few have been investigated for treatment of pediatric brain tumors. For researchers, physicians, and clinicians, this research can lead to a greater effort to improve current outcomes of conventional drug treatment and provide an opportunity to address current challenges in pediatric oncology.