Introduction

Plasmonic nanomaterials have the potential to introduce to clinics novel/enhanced treatments for non-communicable diseases. However, therapeutics cannot persist in organisms after the designed action. This pre-requisite is currently not fulfilled by any noble metal nanoparticle, preventing their translation to the market. To combine the intriguing behavior of plasmonic nanomaterials with their excretion, the Passion fruit nano-architectures (NAs) have been designed. NAs are 100 nm biodegradable silica nanocapsules comprising plasmonic ultrasmall nanoparticles (USNPs) and functional polymers.

Technical features

NAs are nanoplatforms that avoid metal persistence in organisms after the designed theranostic action. Thus, NAs are the breakthrough for addressing the long-standing challenge for the clinical translation of noble metal nanotherapeutics, in order to release the next effective non-invasive treatments of neoplasms. NAs (bio)degradation has been demonstrated together with the biosafety profile and the building blocks excretion kinetics. The NAs production is standardized, and it is energy-free as performed at room temperature. The protocol comprises the composition of the polymer’s aggregates followed by the wet-chemical formation of the silica nano-capsules. The production requires a total of 4h, of which 1h operational. The actual production is optimized for 20 mg of NAs/synthesis and can be further scaled. The variability between batches is < 5%. The handcrafted cost (not comprising personnel): about 1€/mg. NAs are intrinsically sterile as produced, stored, and shipped in ethanol 95%. Storage: room temperature for about 1y. TRL: 4-5.

Related Patent: HOLLOW NANOPARTICLES HAVING A MODULABLE METAL CORE

Possible Applications

• Photothermal agents;
• Chemo(radio)therapeutics;
• Imaging probes for photoacoustic and ultrasound;
• Actual targets: head and neck carcinomas, and metastatic melanoma.

Advantages

• Combined therapeutics;
• Excretion after the designed action;
• Standard & scalable production;
• Production & storage at RT.