Midatech secures IP licenses to exploit magnetic noble metal nanoparticles

Midatech Andalucia, a subsidiary of Midatech Group, a leader in the production and application of synthetically produced biological nanoparticles, has signed an exclusive worldwide licence agreement that will allow it to extend its world-leadership in the field of localised heating of mammalian, bacterial and plant cells.

The agreement with the Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM) and the Materials Science Institute of Seville, which is a shared centre of the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas (CSIC) and the University of Sevilla (US) extends Midatech's priority applications dating back to 2000 and 2003 respectively (WO 02/32404, WO 04/108165) to now include the important discovery of magnetic behaviour in noble metal nanoparticles.

Midatech's biocompatible nanoparticles have unique characteristics that make them suitable for applications such as targeted drug delivery and diagnostic imaging.

• they are water soluble;
• they can present multiple ligands, allowing for multivalent drug or multi-drug delivery on a single particle;
• Their size enables drug delivery via different routes of administration, such as parental or intranasal. Their stability to enzymatic digestion may also permit oral therapy;
• their outer shell (or corona) can be designed to be invisible to the host immune system and they are thus expected to present no immunological liability;
• they self-assemble in a single step chemical process, so manufacture is simple, safe, scaleable and low cost.

Their innate magnetic properties allow for localised drug release or cell apoptosis upon application of a radiofrequency electromagnetic field.

Less than 10nm in diameter, these nanoparticles contain a noble metal (e.g. gold) core, and at this nanoscale exhibit ferromagnetic-like behaviour. Exposure to an alternating magnetic field causes the nanoparticle core to absorb the field energy, which is then released as heat or chemical energy. The nanoparticles can be targeted to specific tissues, cells or intracellular locations by molecular area coding.

"This radiofrequency heating technology, when applied to our unique nanoparticle design, has exceptionally wide-ranging applications, a particular example being the use of localised heat to kill cancerous cells and drug resistant bacteria (MRSA)," said Professor Tom Rademacher, chairman of Midatech Group.

Further proof of concept on the development of localised heating technology will be carried out at the CSIC, Seville, under the direction of Professor Asuncion Fernandez, head of the Nanostructured Materials group at the Materials Science Institute.