Nanoenabled Peptide Pills - Unlocking the Potential of Therapeutic Peptides

生物利用度低的多肽是自然界自己的“药物”，限制了它们的治疗应用。分子包膜技术(MET)递送平台允许将它们用作纳米启用的“多肽丸”。由药物输送科学家、神经学家、物理学家、化学工程师和临床医生组成的多学科“肽药丸”联盟将开发止痛肽药片METDoloron。据估计，20%的欧洲成年人患有慢性疼痛，阿片类药物往往无法充分控制这种疼痛。此外，阿片类药物有时会引起威胁生命的副作用。METDoloron通过针对当前使用的阿片类药物针对不同的受体来避免这些问题，使用一种内源性多肽衍生物来替代阿片类药物，因此预计将对巨大的(500亿美元)、分散和不断增长的全球止痛治疗市场产生重大影响。项目合作伙伴将确认METDoloron药理，研究纳米颗粒传输机制，建立放大和制造工艺，并确认产品(GLP)的安全性，从而创造生物光子学、疼痛疗法、流动反应器设计和纳米颗粒加工技术方面的专门知识。首例人类临床试验将在该项目结束时开始。

The poor bioavailability of peptides, nature's own 'drugs', limits their therapeutic application. The molecular envelope technology (MET) delivery platform allows their use as nano-enabled 'Peptide Pills'. The multi-disciplinary 'Peptide Pill' consortium, comprising drug delivery scientists, neuroscientists, physicists, chemical engineers and clinicians, will develop the pain peptide pill METDoloron. It is estimated that 20% of European adults suffer from chronic pain, which is often inadequately controlled by opioids. Additionally opioids can sometimes cause life threatening side effects. METDoloron avoids these problems by targeting a different receptor to currently used opioids, using an endogenous peptide derivativeand is therefore expected to have a significant impact on the large (US$ 50 billion), fragmented, and growing global market for pain therapeutics. The project partners will confirm METDoloron pharmacology, investigate nanoparticle transport mechanisms, establish scale-up and manufacturing processes, and confirm product (GLP) safety thus creating know-how in biophotonics, pain therapy, flow reactor design and nanoparticle processing techniques. First in man clinical trials will commence on conclusion of this project.