MICA: Well-characterised monoclonal antibody-photosensitiser conjugates for the treatment of head and neck cancer

该项目涉及开发一种治疗头颈癌的新方法。头颈癌代表了许多不同的疾病，包括口腔癌、食道癌和喉癌。最新数据显示，英国每年确诊的此类癌症病例超过1.6万例。目前头颈癌的治疗方法可能会导致生活质量的显著下降，包括丧失语言能力、饮食困难和毁容。我们在这里提出的治疗，光动力疗法（PDT），比手术或放疗温和得多，包括在肿瘤中施用染料。没有热量的可见光被用来激活癌细胞内部的染料，这导致一种有毒的氧气（单线态氧）的释放。单线态氧的活动范围很短，如果它不与癌细胞成分发生反应，它就会恢复到正常的、无毒的氧形式。如果肿瘤内产生足够的单线态氧，癌细胞就可以被消灭。初步结果表明，一种针对头颈癌的单克隆抗体可以装载PDT染料以提供高剂量，并且这种方法在模型系统中是有效的。我们计划在这个项目中积累足够的数据，开始对这种头颈癌的新疗法进行临床试验。

The project involves developing a novel treatment for head and neck cancer. Head and neck cancer represent a number of different diseases including oral cancers and cancers of the oesophagus and larynx. Latest figures show that more than 16,000 cases of these cancers are diagnosed annually in the UK. Current treatments for head and neck cancer can lead to significant loss of quality of life through loss of speech, difficulties eating and drinking and disfigurement. The treatment we propose here, Photodynamic Therapy (PDT), is much milder than surgery or radiotherapy and consists of administering a dye which localises in the tumour. Visible light, without heat, is used to activate the dye inside the cancer and this causes the release of a toxic form of oxygen (singlet oxygen). Singlet oxygen has a very short sphere of activity and if it does not react with a cancer cell component it returns to the normal, non-toxic form of oxygen. If sufficient singlet oxygen is generated within the tumour the cancer can be destroyed. Preliminary results have shown that a monoclonal antibody that targets head and neck cancer can be loaded with PDT dyes to deliver a high dose, and that this has been effective in model systems. We plan, during this project, to accumulate sufficient data to begin a clinical trial of this new treatment for head and neck cancer.