Hydrogel Microparticle Networks for the Controlled Delivery of Nanomedicines

这项提案寻求将纳米药物的优势与已证实的持续药物释放的好处结合起来，以解决全球未得到满足的需求。这将通过设计和开发一种新型的植入式药物输送系统来实现，该系统将含有药物的纳米颗粒释放到循环中。这种技术将为那些需要长期治疗的患者提供巨大的好处。通过结合材料科学、材料化学和纳米医学的最新发展，将研究可作为可植入纳米医学释放系统的未来平台的选择。如果依从性较差，预计50%的慢性病患者将不适当地遵循医生的治疗建议。依从性差的结果是增加了健康不良，增加了产生负面后果的可能性，并可能使疾病对治疗产生抵抗力。遵守情况不佳是一个非常严重的问题，据估计，在欧洲联盟，每年有194,500人因遵守情况不佳而死亡。可以将药物包裹在材料中，然后将其植入体内，以缓慢释放药物。这种材料被称为植入型药物输送系统，可以设计成在较长时间内提供持续的药物释放，从而消除患者重复服药的需要。植入性给药系统已被证明在提供避孕药具和治疗包括癌症在内的一系列疾病方面在医学上非常成功。除了消除患者依从性差的问题外，植入式药物输送系统还可以配置为将药物直接释放到周围组织中，从而避免口服药物的主要问题之一，即阻止药物到达血液循环(首次通过代谢)。一般来说，依从性差的患者群体欢迎帮助他们的治疗取得积极结果的植入性装置。虽然植入式药物输送系统已被证明用于释放小分子和生物制药等常规药物，但从植入性药物输送系统中以纳米材料(一维材料小于1000纳米的材料)的形式释放药物从未被证明。使用纳米材料来输送药物被称为纳米医学，这一领域在过去十年中经历了快速增长。绝大多数纳米药物是通过静脉或口服给患者服用的，因此目前需要反复重新给药，以保持体内正确的药物浓度。纳米药物已被发现在治疗中提供了许多优势，这源于纳米材料的特性；包括增强药物进入血液的吸收，减少副作用，以及改善药物向需要的地方的输送。目前有40多种纳米药物在临床使用，另有100多种纳米药物正在进行医学试验。因此，未来纳米药物的使用很可能会在医学上变得更广泛。这项建议旨在提供一个概念验证系统，以解决患者依从性差的严重问题，为目前和未来的纳米药物的交付，目的是吸引更多的开发和研究活动，以实现患者的实际利益。

This proposal seeks to combine the advantages of nanomedicines with the proven benefits of sustained drug release, addressing a global unmet need. This will be achieved through the design and development of a new type of implantable drug delivery system which releases drug-containing nanoparticles into the circulation. Such a technology would offer vast benefits for those patients who require long-term treatment. By combining recent developments in materials science, materials chemistry and nanomedicine, options will be studied that may act as future platforms for implantable nanomedicine release systems.Poor compliance, the improper following of a doctor's treatment recommendations is expected for 50% of patients suffering from chronic diseases. The resulting implications of poor compliance are increased ill-health, increased likelihood of negative consequences and the possibly of the disease developing a resistance to the treatment. Poor compliance is a very serious problem, it has been estimated that in the European Union 194,500 deaths a year can be attributed to poor compliance. It is possible to entrap a drug within a material, which can then be implanted in the body to slowly release the drug. Such materials are known as implantable drug delivery systems and can be designed to give sustained drug release over extended periods of time, therefore removing the need for the patient to take repeated drug doses. Implantable drug delivery systems have been shown to be medically very successful in the delivery of contraceptives and for the treatment of a range of diseases including cancer. In addition to removing the problem of poor patient compliance, implantable drug delivery systems can be configured to release drug directly into the surrounding tissue avoiding one of the main issues with orally taken drugs that are prevented from reaching blood circulation (first pass metabolism). In general, patient groups that suffer from poor compliance welcome implantable devices that aid the attainment of positive outcomes from their therapies.While implantable drug delivery systems have been demonstrated for the release of conventional drugs such as small molecules and biopharmaceuticals, release of drugs in the form of nanomaterials (materials with one dimension less than 1000 nm) from implantable drug delivery systems has never been demonstrated. The use of nanomaterials to deliver drugs is known as Nanomedicine, a field that has undergone rapid growth in the past decade. The vast majority of nanomedicines are administered to patients intravenously or orally and therefore currently need to be repeatedly re-administered to maintain the correct drug concentration in the body. Nanomedicine has been found to offer numerous advantages in therapeutic treatment, derived from the properties of the nanomaterials; including enhanced uptake of the drug into the blood stream, reduced side effects and improved delivery of the drug to where it is needed. Currently there are over 40 nanomedicines in clinical use, and over another 100 nanomedicines in medical trials. It is therefore likely that the use of nanomedicines will become more widespread in medicine in the future.This proposal aims to provide a proof of concept system to address the serious issue of poor patient compliance, for the delivery of present and future nanomedicines, with the goal of attracting further developmental and research activities in order to progress towards actual patient benefits.