METSONOS, an innovative nanotechnology-enabled sonodynamic therapy for the treatment of solid cancers.

癌症是一种不治之症。在英国，每年大约有37万新的癌症病例和16.5万癌症死亡病例。在全球范围内，每年约有2000万新的癌症诊断和约1000万人死亡。随着我们寿命的延长，这些数字预计还会上升。据估计，现在每两个成年人中就有一个会在一生中患上癌症。据估计，英国经济每年因生产力和收入损失而损失80亿英镑，NHS每年在癌症服务上额外支出130亿英镑。目前的治疗方法要么侵入性强，要么疗效相对较低；癌症存活率很低。我们提出以声动力疗法（SDT）为基础的新一代精准医学。SDT使用非侵入性超声光束来激活一种叫做声敏剂的分子，这种分子通过杀死癌细胞来做出反应。然而，尽管有坚实的概念基础，但实际上SDT受到肿瘤中有限的声敏剂积累的阻碍，这是由于系统给药时水溶性差和肝脏降解。为了克服这些限制，我们使用我们的分子包膜技术（MET）递送平台将声敏剂封装在水分散的纳米颗粒中，保护它们不被肝脏清除并靶向肿瘤部位。我们的创新战略是结合现有的两种技术，SDT和MET，创造一种新的改变游戏规则的治疗解决方案——METSONOS，它可以利用声动力疗法在治疗实体癌症方面的真正潜力，并克服之前临床应用的障碍。我们将首先把重点放在治疗三阴性乳腺癌患者上，因为这是一个高度未满足患者需求的领域。本项目旨在证明metsonos声动力肿瘤治疗在体内啮齿动物模型中的安全性和有效性。如果成功，它将进展到临床翻译，并最终产品商业化。

Cancer is an incurable disease. Every year there are about 370,000 new cancer cases and 165,000 cancer deaths in the UK. Globally, there are about 20 million new cancer diagnoses and ~10 million deaths every year. These numbers are predicted to rise as we are living longer. It is now estimated that 1 in 2 adults will develop cancer in their lifetime. The annual costs to the UK economy are estimated at £8 billion in lost productivity and earnings and additional £13 billion are spent by the NHS on cancer services per year. Current therapies are either highly invasive and/or offer comparatively low benefit; with poor cancer survival rates.We propose a new generation of precision medicine, building on sonodynamic therapy (SDT). SDT uses non-invasive ultrasound beam to activate molecules called sonosensitisers, which respond by killing cancer cells. However, while having solid concept foundations, in reality SDT is hampered by limited sonosensitiser accumulation in tumours, due to poor water solubility and degradation in liver when administered systemically.To overcome these limitations, we use our Molecular Envelope Technology (MET) delivery platform to encapsulate sonosensitisers in water-dispersible nanoparticles, protecting them from liver clearance and targeting to the tumour site. Our innovative strategy is to combine the two existing technologies, SDT and MET, to create a new game-changing therapeutic solution -- METSONOS -- that could harness the true potential of sonodynamic therapy in treatment of solid cancers and overcome the previous roadblocks to its clinical application. We will focus on treating triple negative breast cancer patients in the first instance, as an area of high unmet patient need.This project aims to demonstrate feasibility of METSONOS-enabled sonodynamic oncotherapy in terms of safety and efficacy in _in vivo_ rodent model. If successful, it will be progressed to clinical translation, and ultimately product commercialisation.