STTR Phase I: Testing Scalability of a Novel Drug Delivery Platform for Treatment of Gastrointestinal Radiation Damage

小企业技术转让（STTR）第一阶段项目的更广泛影响是开发一种口服药物，以减少消化系统辐射损伤的副作用，如癌症患者常见的副作用。 放射治疗是肿瘤学家最重要和最有效的治疗策略之一。 在美国，每年有超过800万癌症患者服用这种药物，但由于副作用，只有不到一半的人完成了治疗。 这些胃肠道副作用包括恶心，呕吐，疼痛和消化问题-对肠道的长期损害可能是致命的。目前，没有治疗方法可以治疗这些与肠道相关的辐射副作用。该项目为这种情况提供了一种治疗方法。这个小企业技术转让（STTR）第一阶段项目将确定扩大牛奶外泌体分离技术的可行性，作为使用外泌体进行口服放射防护治疗的第一步。该奖项将为一种安全的口服给药平台建立原理验证，该平台能够为一系列疾病提供生物和小分子治疗药物，并将放射性疾病作为第一目标。第一个目标将通过大规模测试每个步骤来确定缩放效率，然后用一组检测进行验证。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact of this Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Phase I Project is the development of an oral drug to reduce the side-effects of radiation injury to the digestive system, such as is common with cancer patients. Radiation therapy is one of the most important and effective treatment strategies available to oncologists. It is prescribed to more than 8 million cancer patients in the United States each year, but less than half complete their treatment due to the side effects. These gastrointestinal side effects include nausea, vomiting, pain, and problems with digestion – with the potential for long-term damage to the gut that can prove fatal. Presently, no treatments treat these gut-related side-effects of radiation. This project advances a treatment for this condition. This Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Phase I project will establish the feasibility of scaling a milk-exosome isolation technology as a first step toward using exosomes for an orally available radio-protective therapeutic. This award will establish proof-of-principle for a safe, orally administered drug delivery platform capable of delivering biologic and small molecule therapeutics for a range of diseases, with radiation disease as the first target. The first aim will determine scaling efficacy by testing each step at large-scale, then verifying with a panel of assays. The second aim will establish the radio-protectant potential of the therapeutic.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.