DIRNANO — Directing the immune response through designed nanomaterials

Results in brief

Directing the immune response through designed nanomaterials

The project deals with effective application of nanoparticles (NPs) for drug-gene delivery, therapy and diagnosis. Despite initial promises, NPs have proven to be under the expectations (relatively low patenting delivery and product market release). Although the success of anti-COVID nanovaccines has given some hope, we must understand the reasons of such difficulty. We focus on the innate ability of our body to scrutiny and clear NPs and improved the understand the chemical characteristics to ensure immunity evasion making an important progress in the direction of eliminating major obstacles for future nanotheranostic development. Scientific objectives achieved: - We improved the ability of NPs to be “invisible” by immune system by starting decoding the molecular logic used by the immune system to discriminate nanomaterial surface chemical properties, producing advanced immune-inert nanosystems or immune targeting/nano vaccines NPs. - We contributed minimizing interspecies biases, so avoiding misleading preclinical-human extrapolations in NP medical translation by understanding species-specific NP immune recognition mechanisms and providing guide-lines to address preclinical-human patient mismatch, in the interactions with immune systems. - We document the therapeutic efficacy of drug and photosensitizer-carrying NPs targeting cancer and tumor microenvironment immunosuppressive cells - We improved the nanovaccine targeting of those cells triggering immune response (dendritic cells) by tumor neoantigens-coupled NPs and the antitumor nanovaccination efficacy by acting on both antigen and coats chemistry.

Data: CORDIS, © European Union

Project objective

DIRNANO provides a highly integrated and interdisciplinary training of next-generation Early Stage Researchers (ESRs) at the interface of nanopharmaceutical bioengineering and its translation on preclinical and human immunology. DIRNANO will develop biocompatible nanopharmaceuticals with either “super”-stealth or immune-specific behavior for cancer immunotherapy and vaccination by mapping nanoparticle-immune interactions through two core approaches: 1) inception of novel surface engineering approaches, based on new organic polymers, zwitterionic lipids and conjugation chemistry strategies, 2) engineering of host or microbial-derived modulators of innate immunity (e.g. complement system).DIRNANO team comprises internationally renowned scientists and industrialists at the forefront of nanoengineering, pharmaceutical sciences, molecular biosciences, commerce and business, thereby generating a unique pan-European macro-environment for interdisciplinary training of ESRs at the highest international level. Through participation of industrial partners, we will furnish ESRs with in-demand industrial and business skills, including process manufacturing, reproducibility and regulatory challenges, intellectual property and commercialization strategies. DIRNANO will lead to rational engineering of broader libraries of NPs with tunable immune-modulating functions. The combinatorial analysis of new nanomaterial core-coat scaffolds will improve temporal and spatial understanding of biomaterial-innate immune interactions at the molecular level, thereby filling the void in overcoming adverse reactions to nanopharmaceuticals injection. DIRNANO will drive future development of small molecules and biologics-based nanopharmaceuticals through a “low-risk-high gain” perspective and within the context of personalized therapies and precision medicine. As such, DIRNANO, will extensively contribute to European science, education and socioeconomics value, skill retention and brain-gain.

Original text from CORDIS.

Participants

UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI DI PADOVA · PadovaCoordinatorItaly
EIDGENOSSISCHE MATERIALPRUFUNGS- UND FORSCHUNGSANSTALT · DubendorfSwitzerland
FUNDACION RIOJA SALUD-FRS · LogronoSpain
LIPOCOAT BV · ENSCHEDENetherlands
OSLO UNIVERSITETSSYKEHUS HF · OsloNorway
PARIS-LODRON-UNIVERSITAT SALZBURG · SalzburgAustria
STAB VIDA INVESTIGACAO E SERVICOS EM CIENCIAS BIOLOGICAS LDA · CaparicaPortugal
SuSoS AG · DubendorfSwitzerland
UNIVERSIDAD DE LA RIOJA · LOGRONOSpain
UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI DI VERONA · VeronaItaly
UNIVERSITY OF LINCOLN · LincolnUnited Kingdom
UNIVERSITY OF NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE · Newcastle Upon TyneUnited Kingdom

DIRNANO · Directing the immune response through designed nanomaterials

Results in brief

Directing the immune response through designed nanomaterials

Project objective

Participants

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