NANOBOTS · Tumor-Targeting Nanoengineered Bioorthogonal Technologies to Fight Metastatic Cancers
Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
- Duration
- 2018-11-19 → 2020-11-18
- EU contribution
- €183,455
- Participants
- 1
- Scheme
- MSCA-IF-EF-ST
Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.
Results in brief
Tumor-Targeting Nanoengineered Bioorthogonal Technologies to Fight Metastatic Cancers
Cancers, including advanced lung cancer, melanoma and breast cancer, are an intractable class of disease with unmet needs. Current chemotherapies, however, are compounded with poor efficacy and toxicity issues due to poor targeting of cancer cells against healthy cells. Aimed at improving cancer drug tolerability, maximising dose delivery and reducing side effects, the formal objectives of this MSC Action, termed ‘Nanobots’, have been to develop targeted anti-cancer therapeutics that can track cancer cells selectively and mediate cytotoxic drug release locally. Clinical translation of this unprecedented technology has the potential to provide a highly precise and programmable tool to treat cancers, a feature unattainable by current therapeutics, and will be particularly beneficial for patients with metastatic cancers.
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
Multifunctional nanodevices have recently emerged as one of the most exciting new classes of drug delivery machineries to perform abiotic prodrug activation in living systems. However, as current designs have not yet been configured with cell targeting capabilities, their use is limited to the targeting of non-metastatic primary cancers. This proposal, termed 'NANOBOTS', aims to develop an unprecedented ‘track and treat’ nanomachine installed with navigational ability to achieve cell-specific targeting and prodrug activation capabilities to treat metastatic cancers. The strategy involves the development of Pd-functionalized and tetrazine-based nanodevices specifically designed to (1) track & tag both metastatic lesions and primary tumours by identification of cell-surface proteins overexpressed in cancer cells, and to (2) activate systemically-administered cytotoxic precursors inside or at the surface of those cells via Pd-catalyzed deprotection or click-to-release chemistry. Using a range of multidisciplinary methods and techniques including Organometallic Chemistry, Medicinal Chemistry, Supramolecular Chemistry and Nanotechnology, I will develop multifunctional nanobots that will enable –for the first time- targeted treatment of metastatic lesions. Importantly, the modular feature of the nanobots provide a solid ground for a powerful breadth of future applications, e.g. exploiting an over-expressed surface protein in a new disease class as 'navigational guide' beyond cancer. With the support of a MSCA-IF, I will have the opportunity of performing a highly-innovative research programme within a chemistry lab based in the Cancer Research UK Edinburgh Centre, a world-class institution on cancer biology and therapy, and under the mentorship of Dr Unciti-Broceta, one of the pioneers of the Bioorthogonal Organometallic Chemistry field. This will certainly promote the translation of the results and enhance my professional growth towards my research independence.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH · EdinburghCoordinatorUnited Kingdom
Links
Data: CORDIS, © European Union