"Porous Silicon Nanovaccines Combat Cancer" highlighted in Advanced Science News

Researchers from Finland and the USA, have developed two multistage nanovaccines constructed of two biomaterials and either a biological cancer cell membrane (CCM) or a model antigen.

The use of nanoparticles in the formulation of vaccines has advantages, for example the possibility to target the lymphoid organs, and the enhancement of the function for loaded therapeutics. Porous silicon (PSi) provides a versatile biocompatible simple or multistage platform for various therapeutic applications. Biomimetic cell-derived materials such as vesicles derived from the cell membrane of leukocytes or red blood cells encapsulate polymeric particles in multistage vectors, and have been found to prolong the payload circulation time, reduce the interaction with macrophages and the nanoparticle uptake in the liver. Indeed, vesicles derived from cancer cells can be successfully employed in cancer immunotherapy. Combining the two approaches could have advantages.

Read more at Advanced Science News website