Click the image below to view the animated version of this cover.


Created by: Shreya Mathur, Shannon Chen, Kasia Rejniak

Issue 287: Several drugs have been developed, that specifically target the cells residing in areas with low level of oxygen (hypoxia). We conducted a drug scheduling study with our micro-pharmacology mathematical model to test combinations of hypoxia-activated pro-drugs (HAPs) and two compounds that transiently increase intratumoral hypoxia: a vasodilator and a metabolic sensitizer. Our model based on data from murine pancreatic cancers identified optimal schedules for the three-compound combination therapy showing that they are two-fold more effective than the HAP monotherapy. The image shows a 3D rendering of spatial distributions of oxygen, a sensitizer, an inactive pro-drug, and an activated drug within the same tumor tissue from the most effective schedule.