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，许多与癌症有关的分子和细胞过程的谜团已经被阐明，但有效的治疗方法的建立仍然滞后。化疗仍然是大多数晚期癌症的首选治疗方法。然而，它很少是治愈性的，大多数是由于耐药性而无效。此外，化疗药物出现不可耐受的毒性会显著降低癌症患者的生活质量。免疫疗法是癌症治疗的最新和非常规形式，也很少治愈。最近的研究为联合免疫和化疗在根除癌症中的潜在益处提供了强有力的案例。该提案的目标是设计智能疫苗和药物输送系统，可以提高癌症患者的免疫和化疗的疗效，降低毒性，最终导致根除这种日益增长的疾病。在这种背景下，将开发由特异性配体引导的智能生物材料，用于靶向抗癌药物递送至癌细胞和增强抗原递送至树突状细胞。

Cancer is expected to become the number one cause of death in Canada within the next five years. During thepast 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 stillthe treatment of choice for most advanced cancers. However, it is rarely curative and mostly becomesineffective by drug resistance. Moreover, emergence of intolerable toxicities by chemotherapeutic agentslowers the quality of life, significantly, in cancer patients. Immunotherapy is the more recent andunconventional form therapy for cancer, which is also rarely curative. Recent research has provided a strongcase for the potential benefit of combined immuno and chemotherapy in the eradication of cancer. Theobjective of this proposal is to design smart vaccine and drug delivery systems that can enhance the efficacyand reduce the toxicity of immuno and chemotherapy in cancer patients and eventually lead to the eradicationof this growing disease. In this context, smart biomaterials guided by specific ligands for targeted anticancerdrug delivery to cancer cells and enhanced antigen delivery to dendritic cells will be developed.