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

预计在未来五年内，癌症将成为加拿大的头号死因。在过去的几十年里，关于癌症的许多分子和细胞过程的谜题已经被阐明，但建立有效的治疗方法来根除癌症还很落后。化疗仍然是大多数晚期癌症的治疗选择。然而，它很少能治愈，而且大多因耐药而无效。此外，化疗药物产生的难以忍受的毒性显著降低了癌症患者的生活质量。免疫疗法是一种较新的、非传统的癌症治疗方法，但也很少能治愈。最近的研究为免疫和化疗联合治疗在根除癌症方面的潜在益处提供了强有力的证据。该提案的目标是设计智能疫苗和药物输送系统，以提高癌症患者的疗效，减少免疫和化疗的毒性，并最终导致根除这种日益增长的疾病。在此背景下，将开发出由特定配体引导的靶向抗癌药物递送到癌细胞和增强抗原递送到树突状细胞的智能生物材料。

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.