Ligand guided polymeric nano-carriers for targeted vaccine and drug delivery in cancer

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Cancer is expected to become the number one cause of death in Canada within the next five years. During the past few decades, the puzzle on many molecular and cellular processes involved in cancer has been elucidated, but establishment of effective therapies for the eradication of cancer has lagged behind.  Chemotherapy is still the treatment of choice for most advanced cancers. However, it is rarely curative and mostly becomes ineffective by drug resistance. Moreover, emergence of intolerable toxicities by chemotherapeutic agents lowers the quality of life, significantly, in cancer patients. Immunotherapy is the more recent and unconventional form therapy for cancer, which is also rarely curative. Recent research has provided a strong case for the potential benefit of combined immuno and chemotherapy in the eradication of cancer. The objective of this proposal is to design smart vaccine and drug delivery systems that can enhance the efficacy and reduce the toxicity of immuno and chemotherapy in cancer patients and eventually lead to the eradication of this growing disease. In this context, smart biomaterials guided by specific ligands for targeted anticancer drug delivery to cancer cells and enhanced antigen delivery to dendritic cells will be developed.