(Funded by the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Energy, and the U.S. Department of Defense)
Researchers from the University of Mississippi have shown that using glycopolymers – polymers made with natural sugars like glucose – to coat nanoparticles that deliver cancer-fighting medication directly to tumors reduces the body’s immune response to cancer treatment. The researchers tested glycopolymer-coated nanoparticle treatments in mice with breast cancer and found that more nanoparticles reached the tumors in the glycopolymer treatment compared to more conventional treatment that uses polyethylene glycol-based nanoparticles. “Our findings highlight that the nanoparticles we’re using significantly reduce unwanted immune responses while dramatically enhancing drug delivery, both in cell and animal models,” said Kenneth Hulugalla, one of the scientists involved in this study.

(Funded by the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation)
Researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and the University of Massachusetts-Chan Medical School in Springfield, MA, have invented a new, sprayable delivery system for psoriasis medication that can be applied easily and locally to psoriasis lesions. The delivery system makes use of nanoparticles that contain psoriasis drugs, and these nanoparticles act like a trojan horse – the immune cells do not recognize the nanoparticles as a threat, but the medication they carry disrupts the overactive immune response. The researchers designed and tested nanoparticles in different shapes: rods, ellipses and spheres and discovered that nanorods inhibited 3.8 times more inflammation due to psoriasis than nanoellipses and 4.5 times more than nanospheres.

(Funded by the National Institutes of Health)
Researchers from Case Western Reserve University, the University of Virginia, Cleveland Clinic, the University of Maryland School of Medicine, University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center, the Louis Stokes Veterans Affairs Medical Center (Cleveland, OH), and CVPath Institute, Inc. (Gaithersburg, MD) have identified a new target to treat atherosclerosis, a condition where plaque clogs arteries and causes major cardiac issues, including stroke and heart attack. The researchers identified an inflammation-reducing molecule, called itaconate, and developed a new lipid nanoparticle-based treatment that allows itaconate to accumulate in plaque and bone marrow, where it reduces inflammation. “We’ve found that itaconate is crucial to the diet’s ability to stabilize plaques and reduce inflammation, which has been a mystery until now,” said Andrei Maiseyeu, one of the scientists involved in this study. “This discovery marks a major leap forward in the understanding of how diet-induced plaque resolution occurs at a molecular level.”

(Funded by the National Institutes of Health)
Many messenger RNA (mRNA) medicines contain tiny fatty spheres, known as lipid nanoparticles, that encode proteins used by the body to treat or prevent a variety of illnesses. But most versions of lipid nanoparticles for the delivery of mRNA don’t work for inhalable medications, because the nanoparticles clump together or increase in size when sprayed into the air. Now, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have shown that a polymer with repeating units of positively and negatively charged components – called a zwitterionic polymer – can enable mRNA-containing lipid nanoparticles to withstand nebulization (turning a liquid into a mist).

(Funded by the National Institutes of Health)
Researchers from Drexel University, the University of Pennsylvania, and Accenture Labs (San Francisco, CA), and Corporal Michael J. Crescenz Veterans Affairs Medical Center (Philadelphia, PA) have built a textile energy grid that can be wirelessly charged. The grid was printed on nonwoven cotton textiles with an ink composed of MXene, a type of nanomaterial that is both conductive and durable enough to withstand the folding, stretching, and washing that clothing endures. The proof-of-concept represents an important development for wearable technology, which, at present, requires complicated wiring and is limited by the use of rigid, bulky batteries that are not fully integrated into garments.