Multiplexed and quantitative immunolabelling for cancer diagnostics using gold-silver alloy nanoprobes

该提案旨在引入基于金银合金纳米颗粒（ANP）的新型免疫标记探针，用于癌症的临床病理学成像。这种探针打开了进行定量和多重分析的可能性，从而克服了目前免疫标记技术的重要局限性。这些ANP可以通过它们的光谱特征（颜色）来识别，从而实现多路复用的细胞标记和识别。ANP标记物是稳定和明亮的，并且在修饰以结合特定靶标后，它们可以使生物标志物定量成为可能。这种量化对于病理学家来说非常有价值，因为他们必须精确地确定癌症类型，然后为患者选择最有效的治疗方法，这是免疫治疗所需要的。我们将调解我们的研究成熟，以获得一个强大的技术，并证明抗体功能化的ANP作为探针的PD-L1，非小细胞肺癌的蛋白质生物标志物定量的优势。我们的方法应该产生比目前通过专门针对患者定制治疗获得的更高的免疫治疗成功率。该技术的目标细分市场是免疫标记试剂（预计2026年将达到26亿美元）和全球免疫治疗市场（1500亿美元）。我们的ANP和相关工艺的专利已经发布（美国专利10，239，122（2019））。此外，该项目还显示出开发完整成像系统新专利的潜力。备受尊敬的病理学家是卫生部门的潜在用户，他们已经证实了我们新技术的价值，并将在自己的临床活动中进行测试。为了将我们的项目商业化，用于ANP的合成，功能化，光学成像装置的生产和软件分析，正在考虑在蒙特利尔理工学院建立一个初创公司。罗氏是体外诊断领域的国际领导者，看到了这项技术在改变癌症诊断方面的巨大潜力，并表示支持我们的PD-L1检测战略，以促进合作伙伴关系的发展。

This proposal aims to introduce new immunolabelling probes based on gold-silver alloy nanoparticles (ANPs) for application in clinical pathology imaging of cancer. Such probes open the possibility to perform quantitative and multiplexed analysis, thus overcoming the important limitations of present immunolabelling techniques. These ANPs can be identified by their spectral signature (colour), enabling multiplexed cell labelling and identification. The ANP labels are stable and bright, and upon modification to bind a specific target, they can enable the biomarker quantification. Such quantification is highly valuable for pathologists who must precisely determine the cancer type and then select the most efficient treatment for the patient, as is needed for immunotherapy. We will mediate the maturation of our research to obtain a robust technology and demonstrate the advantages of antibody-functionalized ANPs as probes for the quantification of PD-L1, a protein biomarker of non-small cell lung cancer. Our approach ought to yield a much higher immunotherapy treatment success rate than is currently available by tailoring treatment specifically toward a patient. The target market segments for this technology are the reagents for immunolabelling (expected to reach USD $2.6 billion in 2026) and the global market for immunotherapy (USD $150 billion). A patent for our ANPs and related process has already been issued (US Patent 10,239,122 (2019)). Moreover, this project also shows potential for the development of new patents for the complete imaging system. Highly respected pathologists, who are potential users in the health sector, have confirmed the value of our new technology and will test it in their own clinical activities. To move our project to commercialization for the synthesis of ANPs, their functionalization, production of the optical imaging setup, and software analysis, the creation of a start-up at Polytechnique Montréal is being considered. Roche, an international leader in in vitro diagnostics, sees tremendous potential in this technology to transform cancer diagnosis and has expressed support for our PD-L1 detection strategy for partnership development.