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NANOMAT-Nanoteknologi og nye materialer

Development of novel sonosensitive liposomes for targeted ultrasound mediated drug delivery - a new paradigm within cancer therapy.

Tildelt: kr 8,7 mill.

Prosjektleder:

Prosjektnummer:

181779

Prosjektperiode:

2007 - 2011

Samarbeidsland:

A serious limitation of conventional chemotherapy is the unspecific distribution of cytotoxic drugs within the body resulting in reduced therapeutic efficacy and systemic side effects. In contrast, cytotoxic drugs formulated as nanoparticulate or liposoma l delivery systems favour accumulation in solid tumours due to abnormal tumour physiology. Several liposomal cytotoxic drugs are already commercially available. However, there are still disadvantages with such liposome products and the therapeutic-to-toxi city ratio is still borderline. CancerCure has for the first time shown that liposomal doxorubicin liposomes at doses with no therapeutic effect alone have an inhibitory effect on tumour growth when combined with US treatment. Accordingly, toxicity to hea lthy tissue may be avoided as a result of reduced doses and selectively exposing the tumour to US. These data represent a major breakthrough because liposomes can accommodate high drug loads and their routine clinical use has proven feasible. However, lit tle is known about the mechanism of interaction between US, drug carriers and tissue. Also, more research needs to be performed in optimising the key US dosimetry parameters important for drug release, an optimisation linked to the properties of the drug carrier. The overall aim of this project is therefore to address the above challenges to support the development of a novel nanoscale sonosensitive liposome. Developing such a liposome formulation implies that the correlation between liposome characterist ics, US parameters and drug release will have been studied in relevant in vitro and animal models. Finally, a successful project, demonstrating the potential of sonosensitive liposomes for targeted US mediated delivery of anticancer drugs, will represent a new paradigm within cancer treatment.

Budsjettformål:

NANOMAT-Nanoteknologi og nye materialer