If, in 1966, somebody told Isaac Asimov that the “Fantastic Voyage” could ever become reality, I am sure he would have laughed at the idea. However, great science fiction writers’ visions are todays inspiration for many new amazing scientific advances, which were once so impossible to imagine. Like something from a book, we are developing nanoparticles that specifically transport medicine through the human body. This nanomaterial could act as a submarine that is introduced into tumour tissue, and under specific pathogenic conditions may lead to the aperture of their molecular gates releasing drugs to attack and destroy cancer. At the same time, these submarine nanoparticles could have the capacity to be dissolved or degraded into harmless products and thus avoid undesired side-effects. These degradable hybrid nanomaterials made of silica and phosphazene-based polymers are being prepared at the Institute of Polymer Chemistry and funded by the Linz Institute of Technology (JKU) as a Young Career Project awarded to Dr. Yolanda Salinas (Principal Investigator) since 2017.

These nanoparticles are composed of silicon and polyphosphazenes, which are known to degrade into harmless products. They resemble tiny spheres (ca. 100 nm) covered with small holes (pores), which open to the outside under control. Any desired medication can be placed in these holes, which are then closed off at the surface with a “pore blocker”.

What makes these nanoparticles special is that, because of their chemical composition, they can be broken down inside the body, being eliminated without leaving any traces.

Together with Dr. Ian Teasdale, Salinas is now searching for the optimal composition of the nanoparticles to close off the pores. The nanoparticles must remain intact in the bloodstream until they transport the medicine to the body's metastases and have "released" the medicine. The cancer cell's special ph-values (usually more acidic than other environments in the human body) are triggered. Only then can the particles dissolve.

“Using silica nanomaterials that can break down is a completely new approach,” says Salinas, “and it can be further developed in different directions for very different applications.”

The goals of the LIT project are first to optimize preparation of the nanoparticles in the lab, and then to show that the particles can degrade properly.