PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

4-Aug-2014

Contact: Jamie Brown jamie.brown@liverpool.ac.uk 44-151-794-2248 University of Liverpool

The University of Liverpool has been awarded 2 million to become a leading centre in the UK for tracking the fate in the body of materials used in breakthrough medicines.

Researchers will be using radioactive labelling to find out where key materials used in nanomedicines go once the medicines have entered the body.

Nanomedicines are a relatively new class of therapy which can deliver small quantities of a drug in a targeted way to the affected part of the body. Unlike traditional therapies, nanomedicines are formulated to use lower quantities, with the potential for cost savings, fewer side-effects and more rapid treatment of disease.

Part of nanomedicine formulations involve the use of polymers or other materials which help the drug reach its target, but until now there has been little research into where the carrier materials accumulate, despite them often making up over half of the mass of the medicine.

The Liverpool Radiomaterials Chemistry Laboratory at the University will 'tag' parts of the medicines by making some of them harmlessly radioactive and then monitor how they move around the body once drugs are administered. The process of making the polymers radioactive won't alter their chemical composition, so the nanomedicines can be studied pre-clinically without changing how they work.

Chemist, Professor Steve Rannard, said: "Nanomedicines have been used widely in cancer treatment where side-effects are often weighed against the short time span of treatment and the urgency of the condition.

"However they are now being increasingly studied for chronic conditions where treatment can go on for decades. This raises questions about where materials go and how they leave the body during long-term exposure."

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Researchers to track effects of revolutionary new medicines