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HEDoctoral network2022–2026

OncoProTools · Protease‐guided tumor targeting tools to revolutionize cancer diagnosis and treatment.

Horizon Europe — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Duration
2022-09-01 → 2026-08-31
EU contribution
€2,255,360
Participants
22
Scheme
HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-DN

Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.

Results in brief

Protease‐guided tumor targeting tools to revolutionize cancer diagnosis and treatment.

Cancer is of concern to us all: in 2023, 2.8 million European citizens were diagnosed with the disease and 1.4 million lost their lives to it. Without additional action, the annual death burden is set to increase with 20% by 2035, making cancer the leading cause of death in the EU. Cancer hugely impacts patients, those around them, health systems and also on the European economy: conservative estimates value the financial cost to be in the order of € 100 B/year. Reflecting this dire situation, the European Commission has launched an international R&D agenda for cancer: Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan (EBCP)[1]. Innovative, patient-centered technologies for cancer diagnosis and treatment are a cornerstone of the EBCP: drastic improvement in patients’ quality-of-life should come, among others, from drugs that more selectively ‘hit’ tumors. This should minimize exposure of healthy tissue and maximize the impact on the disease. Many future cancer diagnostics and therapeutics can therefore be expected to be ‘vectorized’, i.e. to contain a vector moiety that selectively transports the drug to the tumor. Ideally, a vector unit linked to a therapeutic or diagnostic payload should tightly bind to a protein that is abundantly present inside tumors. This will cause the payload to accumulate in the tumor. Several of the most exciting recent innovations rely on vectors that bind to tumoral proteases. Proteases are a class of proteins, many of which are produced in large quantities by tumor cells. Most interestingly, proteases contain ‘anchoring’ sites to which vectors can hook up with very high affinity. OncoProTools discovers innovative protease targeting vector technologies and applies them for better cancer diagnosis and treatment in a personalized framework. The network has the following specific goals: (1) Explore innovative cellular immunotherapy strategies, based on protease targeting. (2) Discover novel vectors that bind to currently underexplored tumor proteases. (3) Allow protease targeting applications that are tailored to the needs of individual patients, through a deeper understanding of tumor biology. OncoProTools unites leading academic and industrial experts in oncology and cancer diagnostics, medicinal chemistry and chemical biology, radiochemistry and nano-engineering. Translation of results to real-life applications is empowered via the participation of both clinical researchers and feedback from cancer patients. *[1] https://ec.europa.eu/health/sites/default/files/non_communicable_diseases/docs/eu_cancer-plan_en.pdf

Data: CORDIS, © European Union

Project objective

Europe has a high cancer burden: in 2020, 2.7 million EU citizens were diagnosed with the disease and 1.3 million lost their lives to it. This toll is expected to increase further, mainly because Europe's population is ageing: by 2035, cancer will be the leading cause of death in the EU. In 2021, the EC published its ‘Europe's Beating Cancer Plan’ (EBCP), calling for a big push in cancer research. Cancer diagnostics and therapeutics should rapidly become more effective and selective, patient-friendly and personalized.All these goals are directly addressed by developing better tumor targeting strategies. Typically, they consist of equipping diagnostics and therapeutics with a vector unit. The vector unit binds to a protein that is overexpressed on cancer cells or in the Tumor Micro-Environment (TME), causing the diagnostic or therapeutic payload to accumulate in the tumor. Over the last decades, huge effort has gone in approaches that use antibodies as vectors, but return-on-investment has overall been rather poor. Exciting, recent innovations rely on small molecule vectors that target TME proteases. Proteases are ideal candidates for tumor targeting: they are often strongly overexpressed in the TME and possess an active site that allows high-affinity anchoring of vectors. Members of this consortium have played a leading role in these developments.OncoProTools wants to force breakthroughs in cancer diagnosis and therapy by:1) Exploring innovative venues for protease targeting in CAR T cell therapy. 2) Discovering novel vectors that bind to other TME proteases: cathepsins S, B, L and granzyme B3) Personalize applications of protease targeting: deliver innovative diagnostics through deeper understanding of TME biology.At the same time, OncoProTools will deliver a training program that truly captures the MSCA values, to 10 Doctoral Candidates. They will be provided with all capabilities to become leaders of tomorrow's R&I in Europe.

Original text from CORDIS.

Participants

  • UNIVERSITEIT ANTWERPEN · AntwerpenCoordinatorBelgium
  • AGENCIA ESTATAL CONSEJO SUPERIOR DE INVESTIGACIONES CIENTIFICAS · MadridSpain
  • ALMA MATER STUDIORUM - UNIVERSITA DI BOLOGNA · BolognaItaly
  • CANCER PATIENTS EUROPE · Bruxelles / BrusselBelgium
  • CELLPLY SRL · BolognaItaly
  • CROMED KUTATO ES SZOLGALTATO KOZPONTOK KFT · BudapestHungary
  • DEHNE MATTHIASNetherlands
  • EUROPEAN CANCER PATIENT COALITION · Bruxelles / BrusselBelgium
  • FOX BIOSYSTEMS NV · DiepenbeekBelgium
  • Faculdade de Farmácia da Universidade de Lisboa · LisboaPortugal
  • HELMHOLTZ-ZENTRUM DRESDEN-ROSSENDORF EV · DresdenGermany
  • HistoGeneX N.V. · BerchemBelgium
  • INSEL GRUPPE AG · BernSwitzerland
  • JOHANNES GUTENBERG-UNIVERSITAT MAINZ · MainzGermany
  • KOBENHAVNS UNIVERSITET · KOBENHAVNDenmark
  • Quintessence Consulting · EdegemBelgium
  • SCV GmbH · BerlinGermany
  • SEMMELWEIS EGYETEM · BudapestHungary
  • TECHNISCHE UNIVERSITAET DRESDEN · DresdenGermany
  • UNIVERSIDAD AUTONOMA DE MADRID · MadridSpain
  • UNIVERSITAET BERN · BernSwitzerland
  • Vixen Biosystems BV · AntwerpenBelgium

Links

Data: CORDIS, © European Union