Descrizione del progetto
Combinare l’ingegneria microfluidica alle ricerche oncologiche
La chemioterapia è prescritta come trattamento antitumorale nel tentativo di eliminare le cellule cancerogene. Tuttavia, i protocolli per la chemioterapia sono stabiliti con un approccio universale, senza adeguamenti alle differenze tra pazienti nella farmacocinetica dei farmaci. Il progetto POC-TDM, delle azioni Marie Skłodowska-Curie, analizzerà la possibilità di migliorare e personalizzare la chemioterapia. Ad esempio, la mancanza di concentrazione ematica bersaglio conduce a farmacoresistenza e/o a effetti collaterali indesiderati. Pertanto, il monitoraggio dei farmaci terapeutici potrebbe essere determinante per migliorare e personalizzare la chemioterapia. Il progetto propone dunque un nuovo approccio basato su un chip microfluidico per determinare con rapidità le concentrazioni di plasma dei farmaci antitumorali di uso comune. L’innovativo sistema potrebbe migliorare i tassi di sopravvivenza attraverso terapie su misura per il paziente.
Obiettivo
Cancer claims almost 10 million lives annually, making it one of the major causes of death around the world. Despite the development of novel drugs and treatment options, the 5-years survival of the most common cancers are still strikingly low. Chemotherapy (CT) is a widely used option to treat malignancies, however CT protocols are established on a “one size fits all” basis and ignore inter-patient differences in drug pharmacokinetics which influence the blood levels of anticancer drugs, therefore leading to improper dosing in 50% of patients. Missing target blood concentration will lead to drug resistance and/or unwanted side effects. Therapeutic Drug Monitoring (TDM) could be the key to improve and personalize CT, however the lack of an affordable point-of-care (POC) method is preventing its introduction to oncology. Mass spectrometry (MS) is the golden standard analytical approach to determine blood drug levels, but the instrument and specialized expertise to operate it are rarely available in the clinical environment. The high volume of blood required for MS analysis is also a challenge, because cancer patients are regularly weakened. Exploiting the strong and specific fluorescence of anthracyclines, the most used CT agents, we propose a radically new microfluidic chip-based approach to rapidly determine plasma concentrations of several widely applied anticancer drugs. Microvolume plasma separation and collection from a drop of blood (>50 ul) will be done with a specifically designed chip, then plasma anthracycline concentration will be measured using a compatible spectrophotometer. The approach will be validated using clinically relevant mouse tumour models and with samples from veterinary cancer patients. This interdisciplinary project, combining microfluidic engineering with cancer research, will introduce a novel POC-TDM system which could change CT treatments and improve survival through patient-tailored therapy.
Campo scientifico
- natural sciencesphysical sciencesclassical mechanicsfluid mechanicsmicrofluidics
- medical and health sciencesbasic medicinepharmacology and pharmacydrug resistance
- medical and health sciencesclinical medicineoncology
- medical and health sciencesbasic medicinepharmacology and pharmacypharmacokinetics
- natural scienceschemical sciencesanalytical chemistrymass spectrometry
Parole chiave
Programma(i)
- HORIZON.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Main Programme
Meccanismo di finanziamento
HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European FellowshipsCoordinatore
1121 Budapest
Ungheria