The NANOSIM project is an international interdisciplinary initiative led by the Vall d’Hebron Institute (VHIR), whose goal is to achieve a drug delivery method using nanoparticles to improve the efficacy and safety of drugs for chronic liver diseases. Until now, patients’ only treatment options have been limited to removing the cause (or external contributor to the damage), whether it’s a virus like hepatitis B, or a substance like alcohol. Once the drug is eliminated, treatment can only be prophylactic for major associated complications but cannot prevent or slow liver damage.Now, the team behind NANOSIM has published a study in the journal pharmaceutics This opens the door to treatments that specifically target liver sinusoidal endothelial cells, which are the primary cause of liver injury. The innovation is not a new drug, but a new delivery method that uses nanotechnology to allow the drug to act directly on key liver cells.
NANOSIM is a European-funded project coordinated by Dr. María Martell, Head of the Advanced Chronic Liver Diseases Laboratory of the Liver Diseases Group at VHIR, in collaboration with Dr. Ibane Abasolo, Head of the Clinical Biochemistry, Drug Delivery Group and VHIR. treat. Researchers from the two groups belong to the areas of Liver and Digestive Diseases (CiberEHD) and Biomedicine, Biomaterials and Nanomedicine (CiberBBN) of the Networked Center for Biomedical Research (CIBER). The U20 of Unique Scientific Infrastructure (ICTS) Nanbiosis are also involved in this research. Dr. Martell emphasized the importance of advancing new and better treatments for cirrhosis: “Chronic liver disease is the fifth leading cause of death in adults aged 50-70 years and is responsible for 85% of liver transplants. In Europe alone, an estimated 29 million people are affected.“.
New ways to administer old drugs
The team focused on simvastatin, a drug used as an adjunctive treatment for cholesterol that has been shown to have protective effects on endothelial cells, which are key to preventing liver fibrosis that causes liver inflammation. The problem is that taking the necessary doses orally or intravenously causes a range of side effects at the muscle and liver levels, which limits its use. The goal of the study was to find a way to deliver the drug directly to the endothelial cells of the liver sinusoids without dispersing to other parts of the body and causing unwanted side effects.
This active and specific targeting is achieved by conjugating polymeric micelles to a peptide recognized by the surface marker CD32b (specific for liver endothelial cells). In this way, in an in vivo* model, liver fibrosis can be reduced without significantly increasing toxicity and is therefore an effective and safe approach to treat chronic liver disease.
Dr. Abasolo added: “Once we demonstrate the effectiveness of this technology in reaching sinusoidal endothelial cells directly, we may be able to use this nanotechnology to improve liver function, opening up a number of possible drugs“.
*Institutional statement regarding the use of laboratory animals.