Silicasome

Westwood Bioscience have developed a multifunctional mesoporous silica nanoparticle (MSNP) platform that has been adapted to provide high-dose chemotherapy that is encapsulated in the particle by a lipid bilayer.

The “Silicasome” is a comprised of a mesoporous silica core (resembling a hollow glass bubble), which is surrounded by a lipid bilayer that encapsulates drugs inside the pores as well as inside the bilayer itself.

Although Silicasomes morphologically resemble liposomes, there are important differences in the amount of chemotherapeutic agent that can be loaded, the carrier stability, amount of drug that is delivered to the cancer site, efficacy and toxicity reduction.

These differences are due to the increased packaging space for chemotherapeutic agents like irinotecan in the silicasome as well as the stability of the lipid bilayer during the phase of systemic biodistribution and storage. The supported lipid bilayer in the silicasome is more stable than the non-supported bilayer in a liposome.

The increased leakage of highly toxic drug like irinotecan from liposome can lead to systemic toxicity, allowing us to demonstrate major toxicity reduction by an irinotecan silicasome carrier in organs such as the gastrointestinal tract, liver, and bone marrow compared to a liposome.

These features also allow for the improved pharmacokinetics and treatment efficacy of Silicasomes versus liposomes in an animal pancreas cancer model.