Functionalization of starch nanoparticles with DNA

癌症仍然是导致人类死亡的主要疾病之一。虽然已经开发了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组织。因此，靶向药物递送系统有望提供改进的癌症治疗。在过去的二十年中，纳米技术的发展已经证明，可以设计各种纳米颗粒用于药物容纳和靶向递送。然而，这些纳米颗粒中的许多是由无机材料制成的，并且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递送系统已被批准用于临床。淀粉是一种天然的生物相容性材料。与脂质相比，淀粉更具成本效益，更稳定。EcoSynthetix是一家位于安大略省的公司，生产用于各种应用的淀粉基纳米颗粒和材料。由于其生物相容性，淀粉纳米颗粒是一个有前途的候选人，靶向药物输送应用。实现这一目标的第一步是解决淀粉与癌症靶向配体的共价修饰问题。在这项拟议的工作中，滑铁卢大学的Liu实验室将与EcoSynthetix合作，通过将DNA分子连接到淀粉纳米颗粒上来解决这个问题，这样的DNA可以特异性地结合癌细胞。该项目的成功完成将开辟重要的新应用，并产生相关的知识产权，有利于EcoSynthetix的未来发展。作为一个以农业为根基的大国，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.