A preliminary clinical trial has demonstrated that an intravenuously administered nanoparticle containing the FUS1 gene shows clinical activity in stage 4 lung cancer patients. FUS1 can induce apoptosis - programmed cell death - in cancer cells but is absent in those cells.

The nanoparticle delivery system consists of a plasmid gene expression cassette loaded with DNA that encodes the FUS1 protein. This is wrapped tightly in a form of cholesterol to protect it from the body's defense mechanisms. The nanoparticles accumulate mainly in the lungs, particularly in the tumors, where the genes repeatedly express FUS1 tumor-suppressing proteins.

In the study, the median survival time for all patients is 14.6 months, which is considerably longer than the seven-month median survival time for patients receiving second line therapy. More details from the MD Anderson Cancer Center.