‘Low tech’ chemotherapy nanoparticles show promise for deadly brain tumor recurrence

Research ‘Low tech’ chemotherapy nanoparticles show promise for deadly brain tumor recurrence By Marissa Russo Jul 29, 2026 2:30pm glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) liposomes nanoparticles preclinical studies A standard chemotherapy drug loaded in nanoparticles has been able to penetrate the blood-brain barrier when administered shortly after resection of the tumor, new research has suggested. Doxorubicin is a powerful anthracycline chemotherapy used to treat a variety of cancers. While doxorubicin is typically unable to cross into the brain, researchers out of the University of Manchester in the U.K.

found that the drug attained this ability when it was loaded into liposome nanoparticles and given to mice as soon as 15 minutes after their glioblastoma had been resected. The drug then remained at the tumor margin for up to 72 hours, according to the study, which was published Wednesday in Science Translational Medicine. “I think the most challenging aspect of this disease is we are going very rapidly into a surgical frontline treatment, while failing very rapidly by having recurrence,” Kostas Kostarelos, Ph.D., co-corresponding study author and professor of nanomedicine at the University of Manchester, told Fierce in an interview.

“That was something that I always thought is kind of lending itself for new technology to be applied.” Glioblastoma is the deadliest primary brain tumor in adults, with an almost 100% chance of recurrence following surgery. It is characterized by its aggressiveness and invasiveness in the surrounding brain tissue. Another added challenge to targeting these tumors is the blood-brain barrier—the highly impenetrable and protective wall of the brain.

Kostarelos’ nanomedicine laboratory group decided to approach this impenetrable wall in two ways—by capitalizing on the acute disruption of the barrier following surgery and the use of small nanoparticle trojan horses to get an otherwise non-permeable chemotherapy agent to the tumor margins. “We intentionally took the decision to go very low tech—meaning established out-of-patent liposomes,” Kostarelos explained. “We wanted to do this because we were hypothesizing that the concept does not need highly sophisticated nanoparticles to work, and because we had the richest pharmacokinetic profile from these liposomes that exists for any other type of nanoparticles.” The study at the University of Manchester was conducted in a preclinical glioblastoma tumor resection mouse model.

The researchers implanted glioblastoma cells into the mouse brain, waited for the tumor to grow, then resected the tumor—the first-line surgery treatment in humans. They found that following the resection, there was a “permeability or a disruption of that blood-brain barrier, which seems to be particularly beneficial for the kind of uptake and distribution of liposome nanoparticles,” Thomas Kisby, Ph.D., co-corresponding author of the study, explained to Fierce. Harnessing this acute access point, they loaded doxorubicin into standard liposome nanoparticles and administered them intravenously to mice 15 minutes, three hours, 24 hours, 48 hours, 72 hours or seven days after resection.

They found that during the early timepoints ranging from 15 minutes to 72 hours, the doxorubicin liposomes accumulated at the tumor margin, but were undetectable after seven days. Kisby and Kostarelos described the translatability of the liposome nanoparticle paired with a precise timing window as a possible way to overcome the impenetrability of the blood-brain barrier. “We think the blood-brain barrier is going to be permeable to other things, whether it's similar size, similar physical chemical properties, or completely different,” Kisby explained.

“We want to explore whether things like cell therapies, antibody therapies, various different types of approaches also accumulate, and whether they have the same kinetics.” In the future, Kostarelos hopes to move this preclinical study into human trials and would consider collaborating with biotechs to further this research. “The peculiarity in this discovery is that the nanoparticle doesn't require a unique feature to get it to target the resection margin,” he added. “This can be applicable to multiple technologies, therapeutic modalities and companies.

In that way, it's more versatile from a clinical translation point of view.” glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) liposomes nanoparticles preclinical studies Biotech Research