A new generation of drug delivery vehicles could deliver chemotherapy directly to post-surgical sites for patients with a rare form of brain cancer (glioblastoma), as well as those suffering from severe inflammatory skin diseases or hard-to-treat fungal infections, thanks to a £1 million University of Sheffield research project.
The three-year project is funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and led by Professor Rob Short FTSE and Professor Nick Turner. The team will use Cold Atmospheric Plasma (CAP) and molecular imprinting to deliver precision treatments for glioblastoma, autoimmune disease, and invasive fungal infections.
While combining CAP and drugs is a recent discovery where the plasma boosts the drug's efficacy, a significant challenge remains: how to co-locate the CAP (delivered by a small, portable electrical device) and the drug to allow for on-demand, local delivery. Professor Short’s group previously developed drug-delivery hydrogels that acted like sponges, soaking up specific water-based drug molecules. However, this method limited the range of drugs that could be used.
The team is fundamentally changing this by using Molecularly Imprinted Polymers (MIPs). Instead of forcing a drug into a pre-existing hydrogel, they will use molecular imprinting to "grow" the hydrogel around the drug molecule itself - creating a new generation of “smart” plasters. By using AI-driven modelling to simulate these interactions, they can create custom-fitted molecular cavities. This “growing the sponge around the water” approach allows them to trap and hold complex drugs that were previously impossible to use in such systems.
This technique opens up a much wider range of treatment options, including pellets for implantation. For skin diseases, a clinician could use a handheld CAP device (similar to an EpiPen) to trigger the release of medication from a plaster. For glioblastoma, the pellets could be implanted at the tumour site and accessed via an endoscopic CAP device. The plasma produces a safe "cocktail" of reactive particles and electric fields that acts as a switch, providing a controlled, on-demand dosage. This offers a dual-action benefit by oxygenating tissue and accelerating healing. Similarly, the system offers a new approach to managing severe inflammatory skin disease and preventing dangerous post-surgical fungal infections in vulnerable patients.
Cold atmospheric plasma has the potential to transform the treatment of disease in the way that lasers already have. However unlike lasers, CAP will realise its potential in combination therapies with drugs. Our MIP technology brings CAP and drugs together.
Professor Rob Short
Supported by the UKRI mission to power an innovation-led economy, the project brings together experts from the Faculty of Health (Profs Helen Colley, Craig Murdoch, and Dr Greg Wells) and the School of Biosciences (Prof Chris Towesland). This multidisciplinary collaboration ensures the materials are designed with clinical trials in mind, bridging the gap between fundamental laboratory science and real-world medical impact.