Liposomal Boron Delivery for Neutron Capture Therapy

Tumor cell destruction in boron neutron capture therapy (BNCT) is due to the nuclear reaction between 10B and thermal neutrons. The thermal neutrons have an energy of 0.025 eV, clearly below the threshold energy required to ionize tissue components. However, neutron capture by 10B produces lithium ion and helium (α-particles), which are high linear energy transfer (LET) particles, and dissipate their kinetic energy before traveling one cell diameter (5–9 μm) in biological tissues, ensuring their potential for precise cell killing. BNCT has been applied clinically for the treatment of malignant brain tumors, malignant melanoma, head and neck cancer, and hepatoma using two boron compounds: sodium borocaptate (Na210B12H11SH; Na210BSH) and l-p-boronophenylalanine (l-10BPA). These low molecular weight compounds are cleared easily from the cancer cells and blood. Therefore, high accumulation and selective delivery of boron compounds into tumor tissues are most important to achieve effective BNCT and to avoid damage of adjacent healthy cells. Much attention has been focused on the liposomal drug delivery system (DDS) as an attractive, intelligent technology of targeting and controlled release of 10B compounds. Two approaches have been investigated for incorporation of 10B into liposomes: (1) encapsulation of 10B compounds into liposomes and (2) incorporation of 10B-conjugated lipids into the liposomal bilayer. Our laboratory has developed boron ion cluster lipids for application of the latter approach. In this chapter, our boron lipid liposome approaches as well as recent developments of the liposomal boron delivery system are summarized.