METSONOS, an innovative nanotechnology-enabled sonodynamic therapy for the treatment of solid cancers.

Cancer is an incurable disease. Every year there are about 370,000 new cancer cases and 165,000 cancer deaths in the UK. Globally, there are about 20 million new cancer diagnoses and ~10 million deaths every year. These numbers are predicted to rise as we are living longer. It is now estimated that 1 in 2 adults will develop cancer in their lifetime. The annual costs to the UK economy are estimated at £8 billion in lost productivity and earnings and additional £13 billion are spent by the NHS on cancer services per year. Current therapies are either highly invasive and/or offer comparatively low benefit; with poor cancer survival rates.

We propose a new generation of precision medicine, building on sonodynamic therapy (SDT). SDT uses non-invasive ultrasound beam to activate molecules called sonosensitisers, which respond by killing cancer cells. However, while having solid concept foundations, in reality SDT is hampered by limited sonosensitiser accumulation in tumours, due to poor water solubility and degradation in liver when administered systemically.

To overcome these limitations, we use our Molecular Envelope Technology (MET) delivery platform to encapsulate sonosensitisers in water-dispersible nanoparticles, protecting them from liver clearance and targeting to the tumour site. Our innovative strategy is to combine the two existing technologies, SDT and MET, to create a new game-changing therapeutic solution -- METSONOS -- that could harness the true potential of sonodynamic therapy in treatment of solid cancers and overcome the previous roadblocks to its clinical application. We will focus on treating triple negative breast cancer patients in the first instance, as an area of high unmet patient need.

This project aims to demonstrate feasibility of METSONOS-enabled sonodynamic oncotherapy in terms of safety and efficacy in _in vivo_ rodent model. If successful, it will be progressed to clinical translation, and ultimately product commercialisation.