A press release was issued for a paper published in Biomedicine & Pharmacotherapy by Taiki Shimano, a master’s student, and colleagues.

Tohoku University website (January 26, 2026)

Our laboratory is developing a novel therapeutic approach, the Lymphatic Drug Delivery System (LDDS), which efficiently delivers drugs to lymph nodes where cancer metastasis is likely to occur.

In this study, we revealed that two solvent properties—osmotic pressure and viscosity—strongly influence how drugs spread and how long they are retained within lymph nodes.

These findings enable drug formulations to be designed according to therapeutic goals, such as targeting a specific lymph node or delivering drugs broadly to multiple nodes.

This work is directly linked to ongoing clinical trials and is expected to contribute to the development of next-generation cancer therapies.

Publication Details:

Title: Solvent osmolarity and viscosity regulate lymph node pharmacokinetics and perinodal dynamics in lymphatic drug delivery

Authors: Taiki Shimano, Daiki Nagamatsu, Ryoichi Fukumura, Ariunbuyan Sukhbaatar, Shiro Mori, Tetsuya Kodama

Journal: Biomedicine & Pharmacotherapy

DOI: 10.1016/j.biopha.2026.118985