USING VIRAL NANOPARTICLES TO TARGET CANCER

描述（由申请人提供）：纳米技术在癌症的早期检测和治疗方面具有很大的前景。无需活检、手术或其他侵入性技术即可检测和跟踪癌症的发生和进展，这将降低成本，提高生活质量。该提案的目标是开发病毒纳米颗粒（VNPs）作为联合肿瘤靶向和体内显像剂的平台。我们的多学科团队结合分子生物学，结构，化学和体内生物学来解决这个问题。在本论文中，我们将研究两种具有良好特征的病毒：一种植物病毒，豇豆花叶病毒（CPMV）；以及一种昆虫病毒，鸡舍病毒（FHV）。在合作研究者的实验室中积累的FHV和CPMV的结构、功能、组装、基因组包装、化学附着和体内生物利用度的知识，使这些病毒成为这种平台开发的理想候选者。我们将在体外和体内测试肿瘤特异性VNPs攻击肿瘤细胞的能力，并研究VNPs被细胞摄取的机制。我们还将在颗粒内包装抗肿瘤化合物和抑制基因，以促进肿瘤的破坏。最后我们将测试我们的VNPs在体内检测和破坏肿瘤的能力。这些研究将为改进肿瘤靶向和成像纳米技术的发展做出重大贡献。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Nanotechnology holds great promise for the early detection and treatment of cancer. The ability to both detect and follow the initiation and progression of cancer without biopsy, surgery, or other invasive techniques should lead to lower costs and higher quality of life. The goal of this proposal is to develop viral nanoparticles (VNPs) as platforms for combination tumor targeting and imaging agents in vivo. Our multidisciplinary team combines molecular biology, structure, chemistry and in vivo biology to attack this problem. In this proposal we will study two well-characterized viruses: a plant virus, cowpea mosaic virus (CPMV); and an insect virus, flockhouse virus (FHV). The accumulated knowledge of the structure, function, assembly, genome packaging, chemical attachment, and in vivo bioavailability of FHV and CPMV, developed in the co-investigators' laboratories, makes these viruses ideal candidates for such platform development. We will test the ability of tumor-specific VNPs to attack tumor cells in vitro and in vivo, and study mechanisms of uptake of VNPs into cells. We will also package anti-tumor compounds and inhibitory genes inside the particles to facilitate tumor destruction. Finally we will test the ability of our VNPs to detect and destroy tumors in vivo. These studies will make a significant contribution to the development of improved tumor targeting and imaging nanotechnologies.