Logic-gated pro-MMP activation for tumor-specific motility in nanocarriers

纳米颗粒将抗癌药物递送到肿瘤。它们可以防止身体其他部位接触这些有毒药物。穿透肿瘤很困难。了解控制肿瘤内药物纳米载体行为的因素可以帮助改善递送。改善递送的一种策略是尝试消化肿瘤周围的基质材料。所使用的酶被称为基质金属蛋白酶（MMPs）。不幸的是，MMPs可能对周围的细胞和组织有毒。 本研究的主要目的是创造“智能”MMPs，其活性仅对肿瘤基质材料具有特异性。 外联和教育工作旨在吸引学生从事工程职业并提高技术素养。大学预科研究实习，当地中学的药物输送教学模块，以及蛋白质工程和药物输送的新课程模块正在计划中。纳米载体在药物输送方面提供了许多潜在的好处。这些包括它们精确靶向药物递送、控制释放、延长体内循环时间以及提供刺激响应特征的能力。由肿瘤基质/基质的特征引起的渗透性差被认为是药物递送有效性的主要挑战。该项目融合了合成生物学/蛋白质工程和药物递送/生物材料方面的各种专业知识，以创建肿瘤致动的pro-MMPs，并揭示其位点选择性解蔽，蛋白水解活性和增强肿瘤相关细胞外基质内纳米载体运输的能力的机制。 某些MMP（例如MMP-9）在肿瘤微环境中具有升高的浓度。将设计由升高的MMP条件性激活的合成MMP原。这些有条件的前基质金属蛋白酶的能力，提供基质金属蛋白酶特定的流动性增强蛋白质nanostructures.This奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估的支持。

Nanoparticles deliver anti-cancer drugs to tumors. They prevent exposure of the rest of the body to these toxic drugs. Penetrating the tumor is difficult. Understanding the factors that govern the behavior of drug nanocarriers within the tumor could help improve delivery. One strategy to improve delivery has been to try digesting the matrix material surrounding tumors. The enzymes used are referred to as matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs). Unfortunately, MMPs can be toxic to surrounding cells and tissue. The major objective of this research is to create ‘smart’ MMPs whose activity is specific for tumor matrix material only. Outreach and educational efforts are designed to attract students to careers in engineering and improve technological literacy. Pre-college research internships, drug delivery teaching modules for a local middle school, and new course modules in protein engineering and drug delivery are planned.Nanocarriers offer numerous potential benefits in drug delivery. These include their abilities to precisely target drug delivery, to control release, extend circulation time within the body, and offer stimulus-responsive features. Poor penetration caused by the features of the tumor stroma/matrix is cited as a primary challenge to drug delivery effectiveness. This project fuses diverse expertise in synthetic biology/protein engineering and drug delivery/biomaterials to create tumor-actuatable pro-MMPs and uncover mechanisms governing their site-selective unmasking, proteolytic activity, and capacity to enhance nanocarrier transport within tumor-relevant extracellular matrix. Certain MMPs (MMP-9 for example) have elevated concentrations in tumor microenvironments. Synthetic pro-MMPs that are conditionally activated by the elevated MMPs will be designed. The ability of these conditional pro-MMPs to provide MMP-specific mobility enhancements to protein nanostructures will be evaluated.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.