According to the company, results of initial studies outline the device’s ability to significantly improve drug delivery to mucous membranes such as those in the nose, intestine, eyes, vagina and mouth.
The team, led by Hugh Daniels at Nanosys and Tejal Desai and Kayte Fischer at the University of California, San Francisco, also quantified the amount of mucosal shear force the silicon nanowire-based devices could withstand before being eliminated, and demonstrated it to be at least 100-fold better than a non-silicon nanowire device.
Dr Daniels said: “In the near term, there are a lot of chronic conditions of the nose, sinuses and other tissues that could immediately benefit from more efficient delivery of currently available drugs using our silicon nanowire drug delivery technology. We are also excited about the longer term potential of delivery of systemic drugs such as insulin via the mucous membrane route.
“In addition, silicon nanowires are inexpensive to make and are biocompatible. Nanosys expects to develop the technology further in partnership with drug manufacturers whose drugs could be made more effective through this delivery approach.”