ReNeuron Group PLC (LON:RENE) is teaming up with the University of Cardiff to find a method of delivering cancer treatments across the blood-brain barrier.
Work will be funded via a £250,000 grant from Innovate UK's Knowledge Transfer Partnership.
Taking part in the pioneering collaboration will be scientists from the university’s European Cancer Stem Cell Research Institute and the team will utilise ReNeuron's exosome-based drug delivery technology.
Exosomes are nanoparticles released by cells and contain a number of active proteins and micro RNAs that are believed to play a key role in cell-to-cell communication.
A growing body of evidence has demonstrated that exosomes can modulate cellular immunity and promote the activation of regenerative or repair programmes in diseased or injured cells.
The Cardiff collaboration will attempt to develop systems to deliver nucleic acids, such as small interfering RNA (siRNA), across the blood-brain barrier.
siRNAs, also known as silencing RNAs, offer the potential for targeted treatment of certain strains of cancer.
“We are very excited about the potential of our exosome technology platform to deliver therapeutic compounds to the brain and thereby to make a real step-change in the development of treatments against hard-to-target disorders of the central nervous system," said Dr Randolph Corteling, head of research at ReNeuron.