Glyco-NPs · Glycans coated nanoparticles as a biocompatible shield to increase nanoparticles colloidal stability and modulate their immunological response.
Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
- Duration
- 2020-09-01 → 2022-08-31
- EU contribution
- €196,591
- Participants
- 1
- Scheme
- MSCA-IF
Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.
Results in brief
Glycans coated nanoparticles as a biocompatible shield to increase nanoparticles colloidal stability and modulate their immunological response.
•What is the problem/issue being addressed? Nanomedicine offers great opportunities for cancer treatment using a number of nanoparticle (NP) types that, upon surface functionalization, can overcome the limitations associated with conventional therapy. However, NP efficacy is highly impacted by many factors, including the composition complexity of physiological environments that contain thousands of biomolecules, which can adsorb on the surface of NPs, forming what is called protein corona (PC). This PC can alter NP colloidal characteristics, including NPs colloidal stability, and/or hydrodynamic diameter, which may influence the biological fate of NPs. In addition, the PC can affect the active targeting of conjugated NPs as it can change the NP surface composition. There is a need to develop new approaches to conjugate the NP with targeted ligands with the correct orientation that would be accessible in the complex fluid. This project proposed a solution to overcoming the abovementioned barriers by decorating the NPs’ surface with synthetic and naturally occurring glycans purified from blood plasma. The obtained results indicated the ability of developed glyco-coated NPs to increase their biocompatibility, colloidal stability, and biological targeting with an increased NP circulation half-life, allowing their binding site to be accessible for desirable cellular recognition. •Why is it important for society? The results of the Glyco-NPs project, if adequately transferred, can help in speeding up the transition of nanomedicine to the clinic, which can overcome the limitations associated with conventional therapy (chemotherapy & radiotherapy) and improve the quality of patients’ life, reducing the time consumed in hospitals, and thereby, reducing the total cost of treatment. Hence, the project can have a widespread impact by limiting the human suffering associated with cancer, decreasing cancer-related deaths, and reducing the economic burden on society. •What are the overall objectives Developing a new generation of biocompatible NPs by functionalizing their surface with biocompatible and immuno-silent sugars in order to i) increase the NPs’ colloidal stability, ii) regulate/ attenuate protein corona formation on NPs, iii) increase the NP circulation half-life in the bloodstream, and iv) enhance the targeting efficiency and cellular uptake.
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
Nanomedicine is currently the most studied and promising topics in the field of biomedical technology, which is focused on developing nanoparticles. The reason for this is that these materials present unique properties such as size, high ratio area/ volume, chemical reactivity, that offer potential solutions for many of the current challenges in diagnosis, therapy and vaccines on several diseases. However, the safe use of NPs in clinical applications is not established yet. At present, the NPs have limited stability in complex cell media, enhanced recognition by the immunological system and reduced targeting efficacy as a result of the protein corona formation. Studies in Dr. Monopoli´s laboratory at RSCI have demonstrated that glycosylation of the protein corona plays an important role in maintaining the colloidal stability of nanoparticles and influences nanoparticle-cell interactions. The proposed research programme will utilize the combination of interdisciplinary and intersectoral approaches (synthetic chemistry, physical chemistry, glycoprofiling and proteomics, an inter-sectoral secondment (CIC biomaGUNE, Prof Sergio Moya to learn fluorescence correlation spectroscopy and test the NP targeting efficacy) to synthetise a range of nanoparticles (NPs) decorated with synthetic and naturally occurring glycans (hence, Glyco-NPs) in order to: 1), increase the NPs' colloidal stability, 2) attenuate the unspecific protein interaction and 3) increase the NPs circulation half-life into the bloodstream. Together with my supervisor, we have designed a training plan that includes new research (glycoprofiling and bio-nanointeractions), and transferable (project management, leadership, innovation) skills.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- ROYAL COLLEGE OF SURGEONS IN IRELAND · DUBLIN 2CoordinatorIreland
Links
Data: CORDIS, © European Union