Zhejiang University Seeks Technology Transfer of Albumin-Loaded Zinc Sulfide Nanoparticles for Tumor Immunotherapy
Recently, Zhejiang University has“Albumin-Loaded Zinc Sulfide Nanoparticles and Their Preparation Method and Application”Announcement on the Public Disclosure of Achievements Transformation, Intended toWith a base salary of 250,000 yuan plus sales commissionsby transferring the technology to industry partners.
This patent is byTeam from Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital, Zhejiang University School of MedicineCompleted. Among the core members,Prof. Cai XiujunCurrently serving as the President of Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital, he has received prestigious awards such as the Liang Heili Science and Technology Innovation Award and the Major Contribution Award of Zhejiang Province Science and Technology Award. He pioneered techniques such as laparoscopic suction-scraping anatomical hepatectomy and established China’s first discipline in minimally invasive medicine;Researcher Cen DongCurrently an attending physician in the Department of General Surgery at the hospital, focusing on multidisciplinary research in minimally invasive medicine, with a primary emphasis on the development and clinical translation of smart implantable devices (such as hydrogels and medical fibers).
The core of this technology lies in the preparation method and application of albumin-loaded zinc sulfide nanoparticles. Addressing the critical challenge of insufficient immune response in patients undergoing immunotherapy for primary liver cancer, it constructs a tumor microenvironment-responsive nanotherapeutic platform to achieve the dual effects of “high-efficiency tumor treatment + immune activation,” thereby providing new insights for comprehensive cancer therapy.
Primary liver cancer is a common malignant tumor, with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) accounting for the proportionAs high as 75% to 85%. Traditional chemotherapy drugs often lack precise targeting capabilities, damaging healthy tissues while killing tumor cells and leading to severe side effects such as bone marrow suppression and hepatic and renal impairment. Furthermore, the low accumulation of these drugs at tumor sites compromises therapeutic efficacy. Consequently, both academia and industry have been actively exploring more precise and efficient treatment strategies aimed at sparing healthy cells while selectively eradicating cancer cells.
Immunotherapy has garnered significant attention in the field of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC); however, how to effectively enhance patient responsiveness to immunotherapy remains a critical scientific challenge that urgently needs to be addressed.NanomaterialsLeveraging its unique enhanced permeability and retention (EPR) effect, it can significantly promote anti-tumor immune responses through multiple pathways, including inducing immunogenic cell death in tumor cells, improving the tumor microenvironment, and activating the peripheral immune system. Further exploration of novel tumor immune regulation mechanisms, combined with the advantages of our research group’s material-based therapeutic platform, will open up new avenues for the development of nanomaterials for comprehensive cancer therapy.
Innate immunity is a critical component of the host immune response. The cGAS/STING signaling pathway can be activated by free DNA, thereby triggering an innate immune response.Activation of the cGAS/STING signaling pathway has emerged as a novel strategy to enhance the sensitivity of tumor immunotherapy.
On the other hand, excessive reactive oxygen species (ROS) can damage mitochondria, leading to the release of mitochondrial DNA, which in turn activates the cGAS/STING signaling pathway and triggers an innate immune response. Notably,High levels of ROS generation are required for ROS-induced mitochondrial damageTherefore, designing and preparing a drug that can efficiently generate ROS to activate the innate immune response is of critical importance for achieving tumor-targeted therapy.
The team has developed albumin-loaded zinc sulfide nanoparticles, along with their preparation method and applications.This preparation process is concise and efficient, facilitating large-scale production. The resulting nanoparticles exhibit uniform size, excellent dispersibility, and stable, reliable performance. These nanoparticles demonstrate good biocompatibility, along with tumor microenvironment responsiveness and tumor-targeting accumulation capabilities, significantly inhibiting tumor growth and effectively improving animal survival rates. While achieving tumor therapy, these nanoparticles also exhibit excellent biosafety.
This technology achieves significant competitive advantage by overcoming industry bottlenecks through targeted innovations across four key dimensions: efficacy, safety, industrialization, and regimen convenience.
Advantage 1: Precision Targeting + Microenvironment Responsiveness, Balancing Efficacy and Safety of Traditional Chemotherapy
The core issue of “indiscriminate damage” is resolved by the technology’s “dual-targeting design”:Leveraging the tumor-targeting properties of albumin carriers and the enhanced permeability and retention (EPR) effect of nanoparticles, the drug can precisely accumulate at tumor sites. Meanwhile, H₂S gas and zinc ions are released exclusively within the acidic tumor microenvironment, avoiding ineffective release in neutral physiological conditions and significantly reducing toxicity to normal tissues. Animal experiments have validated that even at a nanoparticle concentration of 3.2 mg/mL, there is no impact on the viability of normal hepatocyte AML12 cells, and post-treatment blood counts, as well as liver and kidney functions in mice, show no difference from the control group. This perfectly addresses the critical challenge of balancing efficacy with safety.
Advantage 2: Activating Immune Pathways + Suppressing Recurrence to Overcome the Limitations of Immunotherapy for Liver Cancer
“Low response rate and high recurrence” challenge, innovatively addressed by a “zinc ion + H₂S gas synergistic ROS generation” mechanism:On one hand, ROS directly kill tumor cells; on the other hand, they disrupt mitochondria to release DNA, thereby activating the cGAS/STING signaling pathway. This promotes the release of type I interferons and pro-inflammatory cytokines, while simultaneously increasing the infiltration of cytotoxic T cells into tumor tissues, fundamentally improving the immunosuppressive microenvironment. Animal experiments have shown that tumor-bearing mice treated with this technology achieved a 60-day survival rate of 90%, and secondary tumor formation (simulating recurrence and metastasis) was significantly inhibited, thus filling the functional gap in immunotherapy for “preventing recurrence.”
Advantage 3: Simplified Process + Controllable Costs, Solving the Challenge of Industrialization
Previously, certain nanotherapeutic technologies were difficult to mass-produce and incurred high treatment costs (with imported drugs exceeding RMB 10,000 per dose) due to complex manufacturing processes (requiring specialized equipment and multi-step synthesis) and expensive raw materials, thereby limiting their adoption at the primary care level. In contrast, this technology requires only conventional stirring, dialysis, and freeze-drying equipment for preparation. It utilizes low-cost raw materials—bovine serum albumin, zinc acetate, and sodium sulfide—and features well-defined process parameters (room-temperature reaction for 4–12 hours). This facilitates scalable production, significantly reduces costs and barriers to clinical application, and resolves the industrial contradiction of “advanced technology but difficult implementation.”
Advantage 4: Single-Agent Dual Functionality, Simplifying Combination Therapy Regimens
Current oncology treatment often requires a multimodal approach combining “surgery + chemotherapy + immunotherapy,” but this is associated with poor synergy, complex medication regimens, and low patient adherence. This technology enables"Direct Tumor Killing + Immune Activation" Functional IntegrationA single dose can simultaneously achieve “tumor suppression + immune memory (prevention of recurrence),” eliminating the need for additional combination with immunotherapeutic agents. This approach not only simplifies the treatment regimen but also avoids the cumulative side effects associated with multi-drug combinations, aligning with the clinical demand for “high-efficacy, convenient, and low-toxicity” therapeutic solutions.
Nanoparticles, as materials with sizes ranging from 1 to 100 nanometers, are increasingly demonstrating their importance in the biomedical field due to their unique physicochemical properties. In particular, metal-based nanomaterials, such as gold, hafnium, and iron oxide, have become versatile platforms for diagnostic and therapeutic applications, owing to their high atomic numbers, excellent biocompatibility, ease of surface functionalization, and distinctive optical, electrical, and magnetic properties.
Furthermore, metal-based nanomaterials can be conjugated with drugs, targeting molecules, or imaging agents to achieve targeted drug delivery, multimodal imaging, and combination therapy. In recent years, significant progress has been made in the clinical translation of metal-based nanomaterials; for instance, hafnium oxide nanoparticles and gadolinium-based nanomaterials (AGuIX), acting as radiosensitizers, have demonstrated substantial potential in clinical trials to enhance radiotherapy efficacy while reducing toxicity.
Therefore, in addition to the zinc sulfide nano-metallic particles mentioned in this transaction, numerous global companies in the field of metal-based nanomedicine for oncology have built diversified product pipelines covering diagnostic imaging, targeted therapy, and radiosensitization. By leveraging their unique and differentiated technological approaches centered on core metallic materials such as gold, iron, and gadolinium, these companies have significantly advanced the translation of related technologies from laboratory research to clinical application. The following is an overview of key enterprises and their business highlights:
Canada's Sona Nanotech Inc.is a leading enterprise in gold-based nanotechnology, with its core competitiveness stemming fromCTAB-Free Gold Nanorod TechnologyThe “targeted hyperthermia” system developed based on this technology can excite gold nanorods within tumors using infrared light, releasing heat at 41–48°C. This not only achieves thermal ablation of the tumor but also stimulates the immune system, inactivates cancer stem cells, and improves tumor perfusion, thereby creating favorable conditions for subsequent drug penetration. Furthermore, this technology possesses diagnostic capabilities and is suitable for cancer detection platforms. It has been validated by authoritative laboratories to be free of endotoxins and microbial contamination, ensuring its safety. Currently, the company has initiated its first-in-human clinical trial, in which 6 out of 10 melanoma patients achieved complete tumor clearance. Moving forward, the company plans to pursue regulatory approvals from Health Canada, the U.S. FDA, and other agencies to adapt the technology for broader medical applications.
In U.S. enterprises,Cytimmune SciencesFocusing on the drug delivery capabilities of gold nanoparticles, this approach leverages the targeting properties of gold nanomaterials to precisely deliver anticancer drugs to tumor sites, thereby reducing damage to normal tissues. Currently, this technology is in the stage from early research and development to clinical translation, and further clarification of pipeline progress requires subsequent clinical data.
On the other hand,Nanospectra BiosciencesLaunched“AuroShell” Gold Nanoshell Particles, these particles achieve localized tumor hyperthermia by absorbing near-infrared light at specific wavelengths and converting it into thermal energy. Their nanoshell dimensions are controllable, and their surfaces can be modified to enable precise targeting of tumor vasculature, thereby reducing the risk of thermal damage to normal tissues. Currently, this technology has entered the clinical research phase, with ongoing exploration of its potential application in various types of solid tumors.
Hangzhou Auserei BiopharmaceuticalBased on independently developed polyamino acid materials, a type ofIron-Loaded Magnetic Resonance Imaging Nanocontrast AgentsCompared with the gadolinium (Gd)-based contrast agents (GBCAs) widely used in hospital radiology departments, this contrast agent offers higher safety, superior vascular imaging performance, and the ability to achieve targeted imaging of certain tumors. Furthermore, it can be loaded with anti-tumor drugs to enable MRI-guided integrated diagnosis and therapy of tumors. Currently, preliminary evaluations of its safety and efficacy have been completed, and kilogram-scale production capacity has been established. Regulatory approval for Investigational New Drug (IND) applications in both China and the United States is expected in the first quarter of 2026.
Australian Ferronova CompanyFocusing on the application of iron-based nanotechnology in surgical tracing. The iron oxide “tracers” developed by the company, once injected into tumors and surrounding tissues, enable tracking of lymphatic metastasis pathways and lymph nodes via magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), thereby assisting in the precise surgical resection of cancer-metastasized lymph nodes and effectively reducing excessive resection and related complications. In light of the clinical challenges posed by upper gastrointestinal cancers (such as esophageal and gastric cancers), which are characterized by high recurrence rates and low survival rates, the company has adjusted its R&D focus to prioritize this area. Currently, the relevant technology is in the clinical trial phase, with the aim of securing the first regulatory approval. This technology stems from research conducted at institutions such as the University of South Australia and the University of Sydney. The CEO, Steve Bartlett, brings extensive experience in the medical device startup sector, providing strong support for clinical translation.
France NH TherAguixAGuIX, the company’s core product, is highly renowned in the field of gadolinium-based nanomedicine. This nanodrug combines the dual functionalities of an MRI contrast agent and a radiosensitizer—enabling precise tumor localization via MRI while enhancing radiation dose delivery to the tumor region during radiotherapy. It is particularly suitable for treating refractory tumors such as malignant gliomas and glioblastomas.
Overall, these companies have established unique differentiated advantages in the field of metal-based nanomaterials—such as gold, iron, and gadolinium—through targeted technological R&D. Across multiple dimensions, including hyperthermia, drug delivery, image-guided therapy, and radiosensitization, they have effectively addressed bottlenecks related to precision, safety, and efficacy in tumor treatment. As their clinical pipelines advance, they are expected to bring more innovative solutions to the field of oncology.