Nanomedicine is a newly evolving field in which the functions and features of nanoscale objects and systems are used for improved diagnostics, imaging, therapeutics and regenerative medicine.
Nanotherapeutics include the use of nanocarriers for drug delivery, with the potential to improve the pharmacokinetics, biodistribution, tissue concentrations and efficacy over the free drug. In addition, encapsulated drug delivery can also reduce the systemic biodistribution and toxicity of potentially hazardous drugs such as chemotherapeutics.
The Silicasome is an example of an encapsulated nanocarrier, which is comprised of a mesoporous silica nanoparticle core with a lot of drug packaging space, and surrounded by a lipid bilayer.
Westwood Bioscience, Inc., incorporated in 2017, are developing a new nanocarrier technology for improved delivery of chemotherapeutic agents to pancreas and colon cancer tuned to achieve improved efficacy, while reducing toxicity.
Work led by Drs. Andre Nel and Huan Meng’s at UCLA, resulted in the development and preclinical testing of a novel, smart nanocarrier, which we call a Silicasome.
This development has attracted significant attention in the field of pancreas cancer chemotherapy, as the Westwood nanocarrier is capable of delivering a single or ratiometric combination of chemotherapeutic agents to the cancer site, with the ability to overcome the drug resistant in stroma, improve efficacy and improve the toxicity over other nanocarriers used for treating this disease.