Companies: Bind therapeutics (developing “accurins” which polymeric nanoparticles which target and accumulate at disease sites).
Continuity Biosciences. (The Continuity Biosciences technology portfolio ranges from nanofluidic systems for drug delivery to cell storage systems that enable donor/stem cell transplantation and immune modulation)
Nanoparticles were first developed about 35 years ago as carriers for vaccines and cancer chemotherapy agents. Nanoparticles are stable, solid colloidal particles consisting of biodegradable polyer or lipid materials and range in size from 10 to 1,000 nm. Drugs can be absorbed onto the particle surface, entrapped inside the polymer/lipid, or dissolved within the particle matrix.
Nonoparticles have a larger portion of their constituent atoms located at their surface due to their small size. Nanoparticles, paritcularly in sizes below 20 nm, predominantly exhibit surface and interface phenomena that are not observed in bulk materials (e.g., lower melting and boiling points and reduced flow resistance). The use of nanoparticles is advantageous compared to larger siezed particles because the nanoparticles enter into the cell via caveolar potocytosis, and thereby avoid the fate of larger particles, which are degraded in lysosomes. Such nanoparticles are further distinguished by their capacity for penetration across tissue boundaries, such as the epidermis and endothelial lumen. Further, the use of cell specific ligands on the nanoparticles has been shown to result in cell-specific delivery (US2007/0098713).