绿茶中的一种主要成分能够作为抗癌蛋白载体，用来合成一种稳定、有效的治疗用纳米复合物。在线发表于《自然-纳米技术》上的这项发现或有助于建立更好的药物投递系统。

一些癌症治疗方法的效果依赖于药剂中的治疗成分和将药物投递至肿瘤位置的载体。设计药物载体时，有几个因素必须考虑：首先，其必须具有特定性，这样才能针对肿瘤而不伤及其他组织；其次，药物与载体的配比也很重要，因为如果身体无法代谢载体的话，载体剂量过高可能导致中毒；再者，如果身体对药物的排斥、消耗过快，会让药物失效。

Joo Eun Chung等人利用表没食子儿茶素没食子酸酯（简称EGCG）这一绿茶中含量丰富的成分制成抗癌蛋白赫赛汀的载体。相比其他载体，EGCG的优点在于它自身也具有抗癌作用。研究人员将含有EGCG和赫赛汀的纳米合成物注入小鼠体内后发现，与单独注射赫赛汀相比而言，这种合成物显示出了更好的肿瘤选择性和肿瘤生长减缓效果，其在血液内的留存时间也变长--同时也增强了其药效。（来源：生物360）

Self-assembled micellar nanocomplexes comprising green tea catechin derivatives and protein drugs for cancer therapy

Abstract  When designing drug carriers, the drug-to-carrier ratio is an important consideration, because the use of high quantities of carriers can result in toxicity as a consequence of poor metabolism and elimination of the carriers. However, these issues would be of less concern if both the drug and carrier had therapeutic effects. (−)-Epigallocatechin-3-O-gallate (EGCG), a major ingredient of green tea, has been shown, for example, to possess anticancer effects, anti-HIV effects, neuroprotective effects⁹ and DNA-protective effects. Here, we show that sequential self-assembly of the EGCG derivative with anticancer proteins leads to the formation of stable micellar nanocomplexes, which have greater anticancer effects in vitro and in vivo than the free protein. The micellar nanocomplex is obtained by complexation of oligomerized EGCG with the anticancer protein Herceptin to form the core, followed by complexation of poly(ethylene glycol)–EGCG to form the shell. When injected into mice, the Herceptin-loaded micellar nanocomplex demonstrates better tumour selectivity and growth reduction, as well as longer blood half-life, than free Herceptin.

原文链接：http://www.nature.com/nnano/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nnano.2014.208.html