CD Bioparticles is a leading manufacturer and supplier of various drug delivery products, including nanocages for R&D and commercialization in a variety of application areas. Nanocages have played a vital role in the development and implementation of many useful tools for researches involving biology, chemistry and material sciences as well as nanomedicine.

Introduction to Nanocages

Nanocages refer to hollow nanostructures with porous walls, they have attracted greater attention as a new class of drug-carriers, as a result of their possibilities in multi-modality medical treatments and theranostics. Their excellent intrinsic properties, including porous structure, high loading capacity, smart release, surface tailorability, multi-functionality and low likelihood of unfavorable immune responses, have make nanocages one of the most attractive strategies to improve the delivery of therapeutic molecules.

Key Features:

• Small dimension is a basic advantage to make nanocages widely used in therapeutic diagnostics. For example, Au nanocages are up to 40 nm in diameter compared to Au shells and Au core–shells (>100 nm) used as contrast agents.
• The hollow body structure and spacious interior of nanocages endow them high surface/volume ratio and thus higher loading capacity to encapsulate hundreds or even thousands of cargo molecules inside. Nanocages have a higher loading capacity than other nanoparticles.
• High toxicity caused by anti-cancer chemotherapy won’t be a problem in nanocage carriers. Therefore, a lower dose of nanocages is required to deliver high loading-capacity, a therapeutically effective dose of the drug.
• Thanks to their safe outer cages, they can minimize premature drug degradation or interaction with its biological environment and transport cargos to specific tissues.
• They can deliver relevant drugs to specific organs, even brain, or tissues, overcoming the blood–brain barrier, and preferentially extravasating from leaky cancer vasculatures and accumulating in tumor tissue (enhanced permeability and retention [EPR] effect), thereby allowing effective anticancer therapy with minimal toxicity.
• Higher efficiency, lower costs and proper outcome in intracellular delivery. Viral delivery of siRNA attracts much attention as a matter of safety concern, and nonviral delivery systems are being designed with equal efficiency, protein-based nanocages are now being researched as a carrier for siRNA.