Customisable nanoparticles to improve drug delivery

Nanotechnology researchers have discovered new tools that could change how cancers and brain diseases are treated in the future. Published in the journal Nature Communications, the research has been led by Professor Dayong Jin from the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) and the ARC Centre of Excellence for Nanoscale BioPhotonics (CNBP) at Macquarie University.

Professor Jin explained that the discovery could form new solutions to getting around the body’s immune system response in the targeted treatment of cancerous cells. He explained that radiation and chemical drugs tend to be “very aggressive”, sometimes killing 70–90% of healthy cells along with the cancer cells.

“We see similar problems in the treatment of neurological diseases,” Professor Jin continued. “There are a lot of drugs to treat these types of diseases, but the problem is the blood brain barrier which protects the brain from infections — a lot of the time, the drug tends to circulate in the blood system and not the brain.”

According to Professor Jin, “We need to find a new vehicle for drug delivery that allows the healthy cell and blood brain barrier to recognise the drug as a ‘friend’ and not an ‘enemy’.” Professor Jin and his co-authors are now working on developing this new vehicle.

Over the past three years, Macquarie University student Deming Liu has created a library of 800 different choices of new shaped nanocrystals formed from ordered atom clusters. The different shaped or ‘hybrid’ nanocrystals act as new tools, or a new molecular tag, and a potential new vehicle for targeted drug delivery.

Now that the nanoparticles can be precisely controlled to create different shapes and sizes, researchers can begin to investigate whether they have an impact on the transportation of drugs within the body. Professor Jin added that the new type of nanocrystal could also lead to clearer diagnostic bio-imaging, such as MRI scans and X-rays.

“One can design a super nanoparticle that has optical, magnetic and chemical responses which allows for multiple-modality imaging of the disease and [eventually] superhigh-resolution images,” he said.

“If higher resolution imaging is available, the surgeon will be able to see a precise boundary between the healthy cell and tumour cell, which will result in a better outcome for the patient.”

The next phase of research will focus on further collaboration with medical researchers to tailor the design of the nanocrystals. As explained by Professor Jin, “It’s like we now have the manufacturing capability, but we need to customise our design synthesis to be more aligned with the application.”