Prolonged activation of innate immune pathways by a polyvalent STING agonist” published in
Nature Biomedical Engineering shows that a pH-sensitive nanoparticle-based drug developed by Dr. Jinming Gao and team at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center (UTSW) could boost the body’s innate immune pathways in the treatment of multiple cancers with a unique mechanism of activating the
STimulator of
INterferon
Genes (STING). OncoNano licensed this technology from UTSW for further development as part of the company’s proprietary pH-activated micelle platform, and Dr. Gao, a co-founder of OncoNano, currently also serves as a consultant for the company.
“We are excited about the study published by our colleagues at UTSW demonstrating that the STING activating polymeric micelle can be selectively triggered in the endosomes and enter the cytoplasm of phagocytic cells to achieve robust antitumor immunity,” said Marty Driscoll, CEO at OncoNano Medicine, Inc. “The
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A river of biological information flows just beneath the outermost layers of your skin, in which a hodgepodge of proteins squeeze past each other through the interstitial fluid surrounding your cells. This interstitium is an expansive and structured space, making it, to some, a newfound âorgan.â But its wealth of biomarkers for conditions like tuberculosis, heart attacks, and cancer has attracted growing attention from researchers looking to upend reliance on diagnostic tools they say are inefficient, invasive, and blood-centric. Blood is a tiny fraction of the fluid in our body, says Mark Prausnitz, a chemical engineer at Georgia Tech who has been studying drug delivery through the skin since the 1990s. Other fluids should have something usefulâit s just hard to get those fluids.
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IMAGE: This artist s rendering shows a synthetic polymer (purple) that activates STING proteins (yellow and green motifs) for cancer immunotherapy. view more
Credit: Shenyang Zhiyan Science and Technology Co. Ltd.
DALLAS - Feb. 8, 2021 - A new nanoparticle-based drug can boost the body s innate immune system and make it more effective at fighting off tumors, researchers at UT Southwestern have shown. Their study, published in
Nature Biomedical Engineering, is the first to successfully target the immune molecule STING with nanoparticles about one millionth the size of a soccer ball that can switch on/off immune activity in response to their physiological environment.
New Mathematical Method Predicts Efficacy of Immunotherapy by Angela Mohan on February 2, 2021 at 11:11 AM
Nature Biomedical Engineering in collaboration with researchers at MD Anderson Cancer Center.
Immunotherapy activates patients immune systems to recognize and attack their cancers, leading to higher, more targeted kill rates and fewer side effects than chemotherapy, radiation and other therapies.
While this technology is a significant advance in fighting cancer, it works only with some cancer types, and only in a subset of patients with these cancers.
The mathematical model uses a system of mathematical equations based on laws of physics and chemistry to describe the complex biological systems involved in immunotherapy treatment and the associated immune response.
Research shows a promising alternative to personalized deep brain stimulation
Millions of patients suffering from neurological and mental disorders such as depression, addiction, and chronic pain are treatment-resistant. In fact, about 30% of all major depression patients do not respond at all to any medication or psychotherapy.
Simply put, many traditional forms of treatment for these disorders may have reached their limit. Where do we go from here?
Research to be published in
Nature Biomedical Engineering led by Maryam Shanechi, the Andrew and Erna Viterbi Early Career Chair in electrical and computer engineering at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering, paves the way for a promising alternative: personalized deep brain stimulation.