Functionalization of starch nanoparticles with DNA

癌症仍然是导致人类死亡的主要疾病之一。虽然已经开发出许多药物来有效地杀死癌细胞，但这些药物也可以攻击健康的组织。因此，靶向给药系统有望提供更好的癌症治疗。在过去的二十年里，纳米技术的发展证明了设计各种纳米粒子用于药物遏制和靶向递送是可能的。然而，这些纳米颗粒中有许多是由无机材料制成的，具有潜在的毒性作用。到目前为止，只有几种基于脂质的药物传递系统被批准用于临床。淀粉是一种天然的、生物相容的材料。与脂类相比，淀粉更具成本效益，也更稳定。EcoSynthetix是一家总部位于安大略省的公司，生产基于淀粉的纳米颗粒和材料，用于各种应用。由于其生物相容性，淀粉纳米粒是一种很有前途的靶向给药应用。迈向这一目标的第一步是解决淀粉与癌症靶向配体的共价改性问题。在这项拟议的工作中，滑铁卢大学的刘实验室将与EcoSynthetix合作，通过将DNA分子与淀粉纳米颗粒连接起来解决这个问题，这种DNA可以与癌细胞特异结合。该项目的成功完成将开启重要的新应用，并产生相关的知识产权，有助于EcoSynthetix的未来增长。作为一个植根于农业的大国，开发与淀粉等材料相关的新技术也可以保持加拿大在相关领域的领先地位。

Cancer remains to be one of the leading diseases to cause human death. While many drugs have been developed to effectively kill cancer cells, these drugs can also attack healthy tissues. Therefore, a targeted drug delivery system promises to offer improved cancer therapy. In the past two decades, the development of nanotechnology has demonstrated that it is possible to engineer various nanoparticles for drug containment and targeted delivery. However, many of these nanoparticles are made of inorganic materials and have potential toxic effects. So far, only several lipid-based drug delivery systems have been approved for clinical use. Starch is a natural and biocompatible material. Compared to lipid, starch is more cost effective and more stable. EcoSynthetix is an Ontario-based company that produces starch-based nanoparticles and materials for various applications. Because of its biocompatibility, starch nanoparticles are a promising candidate for targeted drug delivery applications. The first step towards this goal is to solve the problem of covalent modification of starch with a cancer targeting ligand. In this proposed work, the Liu lab at the University of Waterloo will work with EcoSynthetix to solve this problem by linking DNA molecules to starch nanoparticles and such DNAs can specifically bind to cancer cells. The successful completion of this project will open up important new applications and generate related intellectual properties that can benefit the future growth of EcoSynthetix. Being a large country rooted in agriculture, developing new technologies related to materials such as starch can also maintain the leader position of Canada in related areas.