Improving the translation in Europe of nanomedicines (a.k.a. drug delivery) from academia to industry

An emerging era in manufacturing of drug delivery systems: Nanofabrication techniques

Nanotechnology has the capability of making significant contributions to healthcare. Nanofabrication of multifunctional nano- or micro-character systems is becoming incredibly influential in various sectors like electronics, photonics, energy, and biomedical gadgets worldwide. The invention of such items led to the merger of moderate cost and excellent quality nano or micro-characters into 3D structures. Nanofabrication techniques have many benefits as the primary technology for manipulating cellular surroundings to research signaling processes. The inherent nanoscale mechanisms of cyto-reactions include the existence and death of cells, stem cell segmentation, multiplication, cellular relocation, etc. Nanofabrication is essential in developing various nano-formulations like solid lipid nanoparticles, nanostructured lipid carriers, liposomes, niosomes, nanoemulsions, microemulsions etc. Despite the initial development cost in designing the nanofabrication-based products, it has also reduced the total cost of the healthcare system by considering the added benefits compared to the other standard formulations. Thus, the current review mainly focuses on nanofabrication techniques, advantages, disadvantages, applications in developing various nanocarrier systems, challenges and future perspectives.

Liposomal formulations for treating lysosomal storage disorders

Lysosomal storage disorders (LSD) are a group of rare life-threatening diseases caused by a lysosomal dysfunction, usually due to the lack of a single enzyme required for the metabolism of macromolecules, which leads to a lysosomal accumulation of specific substrates, resulting in severe disease manifestations and early death. There is currently no definitive cure for LSD, and despite the approval of certain therapies, their effectiveness is limited. Therefore, an appropriate nanocarrier could help improve the efficacy of some of these therapies. Liposomes show excellent properties as drug carriers, because they can entrap active therapeutic compounds offering protection, biocompatibility, and selectivity. Here, we discuss the potential of liposomes for LSD treatment and conduct a detailed analysis of promising liposomal formulations still in the preclinical development stage from various perspectives, including treatment strategy, manufacturing, characterization, and future directions for implementing liposomal formulations for LSD.

Impact of Chemical Composition on the Nanostructure and Biological Activity of α-Galactosidase-Loaded Nanovesicles for Fabry Disease Treatment

Fabry disease is a rare lysosomal storage disorder characterized by a deficiency of α-galactosidase A (GLA), a lysosomal hydrolase. The enzyme replacement therapy administering naked GLA shows several drawbacks including poor biodistribution, limited efficacy, and relatively high immunogenicity in Fabry patients. An attractive strategy to overcome these problems is the use of nanocarriers for encapsulating the enzyme. Nanoliposomes functionalized with RGD peptide have already emerged as a good platform to protect and deliver GLA to endothelial cells. However, low colloidal stability and limited enzyme entrapment efficiency could hinder the further pharmaceutical development and the clinical translation of these nanoformulations. Herein, the incorporation of the cationic miristalkonium chloride (MKC) surfactant to RGD nanovesicles is explored, comparing two different nanosystems-quatsomes and hybrid liposomes. In both systems, the positive surface charge introduced by MKC promotes electrostatic interactions between the enzyme and the nanovesicles, improving the loading capacity and colloidal stability. The presence of high MKC content in quatsomes practically abolishes GLA enzymatic activity, while low concentrations of the surfactant in hybrid liposomes stabilize the enzyme without compromising its activity. Moreover, hybrid liposomes show improved efficacy in cell cultures and a good in vitro/in vivo safety profile, ensuring their future preclinical and clinical development.

Nanopharmaceuticals and nanomedicines currently on the market: challenges and opportunities

There has been a revolution in nanotechnology and nanomedicine. Since 1980, there has been a remarkable increase in approved nano-based pharmaceutical products. These novel nano-based systems can either be therapeutic agents themselves, or else act as vehicles to carry different active pharmaceutical agents into specific parts of the body. Currently marketed nanostructures include nanocrystals, liposomes and lipid nanoparticles, PEGylated polymeric nanodrugs, other polymers, protein-based nanoparticles and metal-based nanoparticles. A range of issues must be addressed in the development of these nanostructures. Ethics, market size, possibility of market failure, costs and commercial development, are some topics which are on the table to be discussed. After passing all the ethical and biological assessments, and satisfying the investors as to future profitability, only a handful of these nanoformulations, successfully obtained marketing approval. We survey the range of nanomedicines that have received regulatory approval and are marketed. We discuss ethics, costs, commercial development and possible market failure. We estimate the global nanomedicine market size and future growth. Our goal is to summarize the different approved nanoformulations on the market, and briefly cover the challenges and future outlook.

Improving Innovation in Nano-Healthcare Funding

European countries have invested heavily in Nanomedicine over the last decade, however, the output has been much reduced by a lack of knowledge of how to innovate in a heavily regulated setting. This development failing is not unique to nanomedicine but is there to differing extents across most open innovation healthcare projects. The transition from research to development requires informed debate and high-quality data and is a very challenging milestone. Researchers often say they are developing a new drug, when they are in fact doing research – funders also use the terms (R or D) interchangeably - an unfortunate consequence of their academic training. A simple test is if you don’t know actually what you are developing - you are in research.

Partial PEGylation of superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles thinly coated with amine-silane as a source of ultrastable tunable nanosystems for biomedical applications

The development of superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticle (SPION)-based diagnostic and therapeutic nanosystems holds a promise of revolutionizing biomedicine, helping to solve important unmet clinical needs. Such potential will only be fulfilled if appropriate methods for SPION production and for their subsequent tailoring to specific applications are established, something that remains challenging. Here, we report a simple and low cost method to fabricate structurally and colloidally ultrastable, water soluble SPIONs. We used thermal decomposition to produce SPIONs of the highest quality, which were then thinly coated with an amine-silane derivative by ligand exchange, conferring hydrophilicity and great structural stability on the nanoparticles. Subsequent partial covalent occupancy of surface amine groups with polyethyleneglycol (PEG) was carried out to give them excellent colloidal stability, whilst still leaving reactive anchoring points for further functionalization. The correct composition and physicochemical properties of our PEGylated SPIONs and their precursors were confirmed using a broad range of analytical techniques, and we also demonstrated the biocompatible character of the resulting nanoparticles, as well as their suitability as T2 MRI contrast agents in vivo. Finally, using a near infra-red fluorophore, we also confirmed that these SPIONs are amenable to further tuning, to adapt them to a wide range of applications or to optimize their performance in particular settings. In summary, our work provides a novel and robust method for the production of SPIONs that can be used as a tunable platform for the development of smart diagnostic and therapeutic nanosystems.

Defining Nano, Nanotechnology and Nanomedicine: Why Should It Matter?

Nanotechnology, which involves manipulation of matter on a 'nano' scale, is considered to be a key enabling technology. Medical applications of nanotechnology (commonly known as nanomedicine) are expected to significantly improve disease diagnostic and therapeutic modalities and subsequently reduce health care costs. However, there is no consensus on the definition of nanotechnology or nanomedicine, and this stems from the underlying debate on defining 'nano'. This paper aims to present the diversity in the definition of nanomedicine and its impact on the translation of basic science research in nanotechnology into clinical applications. We present the insights obtained from exploratory qualitative interviews with 46 stakeholders involved in translational nanomedicine from Europe and North America. The definition of nanomedicine has implications for many aspects of translational research including: fund allocation, patents, drug regulatory review processes and approvals, ethical review processes, clinical trials and public acceptance. Given the interdisciplinary nature of the field and common interest in developing effective clinical applications, it is important to have honest and transparent communication about nanomedicine, its benefits and potential harm. A clear and consistent definition of nanomedicine would significantly facilitate trust among various stakeholders including the general public while minimizing the risk of miscommunication and undue fear of nanotechnology and nanomedicine.

Delivering nanomedicines to patients: a practical guide

This is a perspective on the current state of development of nanomedicines in Europe. The view is expressed that a much higher translational success rate could be achieved, with rewards for all stakeholders, if researchers understood the industrial decision points required for new drugs. Getting a drug through the clinic will not help patients unless it is developable by industry. This article is written in the hope that it will help researchers and SMEs to decide where they are in the established process, whether they are making progress and to determine what to do next. It attempts to map the early stages from ideation to first (time) in man (FIM).

FROM THE CLINICAL EDITOR

The field of nanomedicine has come a long way in the past decade. The overall dream of any researcher in this field remains the realization of concept to clinical product. In this paper, the authors outlined for the readers, the underlying problems and actions that need to be done, so that current challenges can be solved.

Polymer-doxycycline conjugates as fibril disrupters: an approach towards the treatment of a rare amyloidotic disease

The term amyloidosis describes neurological diseases where an abnormal protein is misfolded and accumulated as deposits in organs and tissues, known as amyloid, disrupting their normal function. In the most common familial amyloid polyneuropathy (FAP), transthyretin (TTR) displays this role primarily affecting the peripheral nervous system (PNS). Advanced stages of this inherited rare amyloidosis, present as fibril deposits that are responsible for disease progression. In order to stop disease progression, herein we designed an efficient family of nanoconjugates as fibril disrupters. These polymer conjugates are based on doxycycline (doxy), already in phase II trials for Alzheimer's disease, covalently linked to poly-l-glutamic acid (PGA). The conjugates were rationally designed, looking at drug loading and drug release rate by adequate linker design, always considering the physiological conditions at the molecular target site. Conjugation of doxycycline exhibited greater potential towards TTR fibril disaggregation in vitro compared to the parent drug. Exhaustive physico-chemical evaluation of these polymer-drug conjugates concluded that drug release was unnecessary for activity, highlighting the importance of an appropriate linker. Furthermore, biodistribution studies through optical imaging (OI) and the use of radiolabelled polymer-drug conjugates demonstrated conjugate safety profile and renal clearance route of the selected PGA-doxy candidate, settling the adequacy of our conjugate for future in vivo evaluation. Furthermore, preliminary studies in an FAP in vivo model at early stages of disease development showed non-organ toxicity evidences. This nanosized-system raises a promising treatment for advanced stages of this rare amyloidotic disease, and also presents a starting point for possible application within other amyloidosis-related diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease.

Multifunctional nanovesicle-bioactive conjugates prepared by a one-step scalable method using CO2-expanded solvents

The integration of therapeutic biomolecules, such as proteins and peptides, in nanovesicles is a widely used strategy to improve their stability and efficacy. However, the translation of these promising nanotherapeutics to clinical tests is still challenged by the complexity involved in the preparation of functional nanovesicles and their reproducibility, scalability, and cost production. Here we introduce a simple one-step methodology based on the use of CO2-expanded solvents to prepare multifunctional nanovesicle-bioactive conjugates. We demonstrate high vesicle-to-vesicle homogeneity in terms of size and lamellarity, batch-to-batch consistency, and reproducibility upon scaling-up. Importantly, the procedure is readily amenable to the integration/encapsulation of multiple components into the nanovesicles in a single step and yields sufficient quantities for clinical research. The simplicity, reproducibility, and scalability render this one-step fabrication process ideal for the rapid and low-cost translation of nanomedicine candidates from the bench to the clinic.