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

癌症是不治之症。英国每年约有370，000例新发癌症病例和165，000例癌症死亡。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，这些数字预计会上升。据估计，每两个成年人中就有一个会在一生中患上癌症。据估计，英国经济每年损失的生产力和收入为80亿英镑，NHS每年用于癌症服务的费用为130亿英镑。目前的治疗要么是高度侵入性和/或提供相对较低的利益;与穷人的癌症生存率。我们提出了新一代的精确医学，声动力学治疗（SDT）的基础上。SDT使用非侵入性的超声波束来激活称为声敏剂的分子，这些分子通过杀死癌细胞来做出反应。然而，虽然有坚实的概念基础，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在肝脏中降解。为了克服这些限制，我们使用分子包膜技术（MET）递送平台将声敏剂封装在水分散性纳米颗粒中，保护它们免受肝脏清除并靶向肿瘤部位。我们的创新战略是将两种现有技术（SDT和MET）联合收割机结合起来，创造一种新的改变游戏规则的治疗解决方案- METSONOS -可以利用声动力治疗在治疗实体癌方面的真正潜力，并克服其临床应用的障碍。我们将首先专注于治疗三阴性乳腺癌患者，因为这是一个高度未满足的患者需求领域。该项目旨在证明METSONOS启用的声动力肿瘤治疗在啮齿动物模型中的安全性和有效性方面的可行性。如果成功，它将进展到临床翻译，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.