In collaboration with Nanomerics Ltd, N4 Pharma has released the results of a recent study assessing the potential of Nuvec® , a non-viral nanoparticle delivery system consisting of poly(ethylenimine) coated silica particles, as a gene therapy delivery platform in cancer treatment.

Introducing exogenous genetic material to a cell alters its protein expression, which presents the challenge of protecting sensitive nucleic acids from enzymatic degradation in the body and to deliver them to a target site whilst minimising the off-target side effects.

In this study, N4 Pharma and Nanomerics formulated colloidally stable Nuvec-TNF-α pDNA polyplexes which successfully mediated gene transfer to the cells and translation to the functional cytokine in vitro, as well as generating an anti-tumour response in vivo in a mouse tumour model which increased mice survival.

As a result, the Nuvec® nanoparticle delivery system has demonstrated its potential to deliver tumoricidal plasmids in vivo and therefore presents a viable alternative for clinical use in cancer therapies.

Find out more about the result of the study in the poster here.