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

癌症有望在未来五年内成为加拿大的头号死因。在过去的几十年里，关于癌症涉及的许多分子和细胞过程的谜团已经被阐明，但对于根除癌症的有效治疗方法的建立一直滞后。化疗仍然是大多数晚期癌症的首选治疗方法。然而，它很少治愈，而且大多因耐药而无效。此外，化疗药物产生的不可耐受的毒性显著降低了癌症患者的生活质量。免疫疗法是较新的非传统癌症疗法，也很少治愈。最近的研究为联合免疫和化疗在根除癌症方面的潜在益处提供了强有力的证据。这项提议的目的是设计智能疫苗和药物输送系统，以提高免疫和化疗对癌症患者的疗效并降低其毒性，最终导致这种日益增长的疾病的根除。在此背景下，将开发以特定配体为导向的智能生物材料，用于靶向向癌细胞输送抗癌药物和增强对树突状细胞的抗原输送。

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.