Self-feeding implants to improve and accelerate tissue healing using nutritional nanoparticles

Descrizione del progetto

Impianti ossei autoalimentati

Sebbene gli impianti ossei svolgano un ruolo cruciale nel settore medico, il loro elevato tasso di fallimento determina un aumento dei costi sanitari e una riduzione della qualità della vita dei pazienti. Una sfida importante in tal ambito è costituita dalla necessità di mantenere la vitalità dei tessuti viventi di grandi dimensioni. Recenti ricerche hanno dimostrato che il glicogeno è in grado di favorire la sopravvivenza a lungo termine degli impianti, promuovere la formazione dei tessuti, ridurre l’infiammazione e migliorare la vascolarizzazione. Il progetto NutriBone, finanziato dal CER, si propone di risolvere i difetti ossei di dimensioni critiche mediante lo sviluppo di un impianto osseo autoalimentato, il tutto concentrandosi su difetti ossei significativi e puntando alla creazione di un prodotto minimo funzionante, una tabella di marcia per la certificazione, ricerche di mercato e un piano aziendale. Il concetto di autoalimentazione suggerisce che, quando l’ambiente circostante non riesce a fornirle, i tessuti dovrebbero generare le proprie sostanze nutritive.

Obiettivo

Keeping large (>1cm3) living tissues alive is an unresolved key challenge that hinders many clinical and industrial applications, including tissue/organ transplants, engineered tissues, drug screening models, and lab grown meat. While natural tissues within our body are continuously provided with nutrients via the blood stream, engineered, explanted, or even implanted tissues have to rely on the slow diffusion of nutrients until perfused vascularization is achieved. This commonly leads to tissue starvation, which inevitably causes tissue failure.

The NutriBone project is based on the logical yet never before explored premise that these tissues need to provide their own nutrients if the environment cannot do so. This is an innovative concept named self-feeding. We have surprisingly discovered that glycogen offers cell-driven long-term release of physiologically relevant quantities of glucose enabling long-term implant survival, accelerated tissue formation, reduced inflammation and immune responses, and improved vascularization. As this approach is a first-of-its-kind, we have patented it and here propose its valorisation.

We propose to develop a marketable self-feeding bone implant to address the current clinical challenge of critically sized bone defects. Although our technology is relevant for many clinical applications, we will focus on large bone defects. Bone is the second most implanted tissue but implant failure remains high, leading to high medical cost and low quality of life for patients. Moreover, bone implants represent the largest, and still fast growing market for engineered tissues, while awaiting a solution to maintain implant viability. Thus, we can foresee a concrete path-to-market. To this end, we will perform product development towards a minimum viable product, establishing a roadmap for certification, and market research as well business plan development to ensure a good product-market fit including a market entry and exit strategy.