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Oraya receives grant to investigate gold nanoparticles
The company will team up with Dana-Farber Cancer Institute to develop a novel wet AMD treatment.
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Oraya Therapeutics received a $215,000 Small Business Technology Transfer grant from the National Institutes of Health to further investigate how gold nanoparticles will improve the treatment of wet age-related macular degeneration, according to a company press release.
Under the grant, Oraya will partner with Dana-Farber Cancer Institute to develop a novel treatment for wet AMD using gold nanoparticles.
Jim Taylor
“We were contacted as a result of a radiation therapy conference by the folks at Dana-Farber regarding their work using gold nanoparticles in cancer,” Jim Taylor, CEO of Oraya Therapeutics, told Ocular Surgery News. “The intent of using gold nanoparticles is to get a local enhancement of the radiation dose and thereby allow you to use a lower dose externally while still getting the same therapeutic dose to the target.”
Dana-Farber’s treatment approach uses gold nanoparticles to target neovascular endothelial cells, which is a key therapeutic target associated with wet AMD.
“One of the basic principles of radiation therapy is always to use the lowest possible dose no matter what,” Taylor said.
Researchers believe that using low-energy radiation to activate targeted nanoparticles could offer a significant boost in the effectiveness of currently available treatment options, with the idea that the dose to the target could be increased without damaging surrounding healthy tissue, the release said.
“The real potential benefit of the research would be to demonstrate that the use of gold nanoparticles can serve the intent of amplifying the local dose. Then it would enable the system to actually deliver a lower external dose to the front of the eye in order to get the same effectiveness in the back of the eye,” Taylor said.
Oraya Therapy uses a laser-guided energy delivery system with real-time eye tracking, which enables the dose delivery required for the research.
“If the nanoparticles allowed that type of dose enhancement, it might enable us to either treat larger treatment zones or maybe even provide more intense local dosing with at least as good or better safety margins to the other structures,” Taylor said.
According to Taylor, Oraya’s technology currently has no safety issues or concerns. – by Nhu Te
For more information:
Jim Taylor can be reached at Oraya Therapeutics, 8000 Jarvis Ave., Suite 200, Newark, CA 94560; 510- 456-3700.Disclosure: Taylor is CEO of Oraya Therapeutics with an equity position.