**Author details**

Masaru Takeuchi1 , Gauvain Haulot2 and Chih‐Ming Ho3

1 Graduate School of Engineering, Nagoya University, Nagoya, Japan

2 Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science, University of California, Los Angeles, USA

3 Department of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering, Department of Bioengineering, Uni‐ versity of California, Los Angeles, USA

## **References**

**Figure 12.** Discharge of macrophages from the microchannel

analysis applied to disease therapies.

versity of California, Los Angeles, USA

**Acknowledgements**

**Author details**

Masaru Takeuchi1

Angeles, USA

This chapter shows theoretical analysis about phase transition in the OERM device and an application for a biosensing platform. The OERM platform is currently being integrated within a cell interrogation platform. Temperature and flow control are conducted to realize the platform. The platform will realize sensing protocols automatically for lab‐on‐the‐chip

Micro-Nano Mechatronics — New Trends in Material, Measurement, Control, Manufacturing and Their Applications in

This project is supported by NSF nano manufacture center SINAM (DMI‐0327077)

2 Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science, University of California, Los

3 Department of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering, Department of Bioengineering, Uni‐

, Gauvain Haulot2 and Chih‐Ming Ho3

1 Graduate School of Engineering, Nagoya University, Nagoya, Japan

**4. Conclusion**

Biomedical Engineering

312

	- [16] Amatore C, Arbault S, Chen Y, Crozatier C, Tapsoba I. Electrochemical detection in a microfluidic device of oxidative stress generated by macrophage cells. Lab on a Chip 2007;7 233‐238.

**Chapter 16**

**Transferrin-Toxin Conjugates for Cancer**

For several years,researchers have targeted receptors overexpressed on cancer cells to improve the selectivity of toxic anticancer agents. In addition to conjugating the toxin to an antibody for such a receptor, the natural ligand for the overexpressed receptor has also been used as a protein‐based drug delivery vehicle. The therapeutic efficacy of such ligand‐drug molecular conjugates, however, may be limited, since they naturally follow the intracellular trafficking pathways of the endogenous ligands, which have certainly not been optimized by nature for drug delivery efficacy. Accordingly, novel design criteria may be identified for these ligands through an understanding of theirintracellulartrafficking pathways. This shortreview briefly describes the transferrin ligand/transferrin receptor system, where intracellular trafficking considerations have led to improvements in the therapeutic efficacy of transferrin‐toxin

Cancer is the second leading cause of death in the United States [1, 2]. Unfortunately, current treatments involve invasive surgery followed by nonspecific radiation and chemotherapy that harm both healthy and cancer cells. Accordingly, much research has been dedicated to improving the tumor selectivity of chemotherapy treatments. Since the early 1980s, many receptors were found to have increased expression in cancer cells compared to their normal counterparts. These include transferrin receptor, interleukin‐13 receptor, and growth factor receptors [3‐7]. These receptors have been investigated for several years as cancer‐selective

An understanding of the trafficking pathway of the natural ligand can lead to novel design criteria for engineering the ligand to be a more effective drug carrier [8‐12]. This short review focuses on transferrin ligand‐toxin molecular conjugates with particular emphasis given to the

> © 2013 Kamei; licensee InTech. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use,

© 2013 Kamei; licensee InTech. This is a paper distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Daniel T. Kamei

**Abstract**

molecular conjugates.

**1. Introduction**

targets for therapeutic purposes.

