An Injectable Implant Providing Long-Acting Drug Delivery for the Treatment of Chronic disease

在欧洲，慢性病目前是死亡率和发病率的主要原因。仅在英格兰，就有1500万人患有长期疾病，据估计，他们占到了医疗和社会保健总支出的70%。慢性病管理中的一个重要因素是治疗的长期性。虽然治疗通常非常有效，但只有在结合患者长期坚持用药的情况下才有效。不幸的是，在长期疾病患者群体中，患者的依从性通常很差；只有大约50%的患者坚持他们的治疗方案。依从性差可以通过减少给药频率来简化治疗方案来解决。例如，当口服剂量等自我给药方案被长效制剂取代时，依从性可以得到极大改善。此外，众所周知，减少剂量的频率对需要长期治疗的患者很有吸引力。这项提议寻求开发一种新的药物输送系统，这种系统可以很容易地注射到人体内，并将提供长效药物释放。这项技术将解决因服药依从性差而引起的问题。药物输送系统将由响应性高的聚合物纳米颗粒和药物纳米颗粒组成，形成纳米复合材料，在注射到体内时将药物储存库包裹起来。药物释放后，这些物质会降解成无毒成分，并离开人体。为了加速这项新技术向临床应用的发展，该项目将包括紧密结合的材料合成和生物学评价。所涉及的材料将在细胞存在的情况下同时进行准备和评估，以检查它们是否具有生物兼容性。响应性聚合物纳米粒子将被合成以将响应行为与可调节的降解相结合，而药物纳米粒子的设计将允许药物释放速率被改变。少数经过优化的材料将接受详细的生物学评估。由此产生的新型、可生物降解的纳米复合材料将具有适当的物理和生物特性，可以注射到人体内。这项技术将为治疗慢性病提供可调的、长效的药物释放。

Within Europe, chronic diseases are currently the leading cause of mortality and morbidity. In England alone, there are 15m people with long-term conditions who are estimated to account for 70% of the total health and social care spend. A significant factor in the management of chronic disease is the long-term nature of the treatment. Although often very efficient, therapies are only effective when combined with long-term medication adherence from the patient. Unfortunately, patient adherence is typically poor within long-term disease patient populations; only about 50% of patients adhere to their treatment regimes. Poor adherence can be addressed by the simplification of therapeutic regimes through reducing the dosing frequency. For example, when self-administered treatment regimens such as oral dosing are replaced with long acting formulations adherence can be greatly improved. Additionally, reducing the frequently of dosing is known to be appealing to patients with long-term therapy requirements. This proposal seeks to develop a new drug delivery system that could be easily injected into the body and would provide long-acting drug release. This technology would address issues caused by poor medication adherence. The drug delivery system would be composed of responsive polymer nanoparticles and drug nanoparticles that form a nanocomposite, entrapping a reservoir of drug upon injection into the body. After the drug has been released the materials would degrade into non-toxic components and leave the body. In order to accelerate the development of this novel technology toward clinical use, this project will consist of closely-integrated materials synthesis and biological assessment. The materials involved will be simultaneously prepared and evaluated in the presence of cells to check that they are biologically compatible. The responsive polymer nanoparticles will be synthesised to combine responsive behaviour with tuneable degradation, while the design of the drug nanoparticles will allow the drug release rate to be altered. A small number of optimised materials will undergo detailed biological evaluation. The resulting novel, biodegradable, nanocomposite material would have appropriate physical and biological properties for injection into the body. This technology will provide tuneable, long-acting release of drugs for the treatment of chronic disease.