European Commission logo
italiano italiano
CORDIS - Risultati della ricerca dell’UE
CORDIS

Protease‐guided tumor targeting tools to revolutionize cancer diagnosis and treatment.

Descrizione del progetto

Strumenti innovativi di targeting dei tumori per la diagnosi e il trattamento

Le proteasi sono spesso fortemente sovraespresse nel microambiente tumorale e i loro siti attivi consentono il legame ad alta affinità dei vettori. Ciò rende le proteasi candidati ideali per il targeting dei tumori e le recenti innovazioni riguardano vettori di piccole molecole per colpire le proteasi del microambiente tumorale. Finanziato dal programma di azioni Marie Skłodowska-Curie, il progetto OncoProTools si propone di rivoluzionare la diagnosi e la terapia del cancro sviluppando approcci innovativi per il targeting delle proteasi nella terapia a base di cellule T del recettore dell’antigene chimerico, scoprendo nuovi vettori che legano un maggior numero di proteasi del microambiente tumorale e introducendo una diagnostica innovativa, basata su una migliore comprensione della biologia dei tale microambiente. Inoltre, gli OncoProTools offriranno un percorso di formazione a 10 dottorandi, fornendo loro le capacità per diventare leader nella ricerca sul cancro.

Obiettivo

Europe has a high cancer burden: in 2020, 2.7 million EU citizens were diagnosed with the disease and 1.3 million lost their lives to it. This toll is expected to increase further, mainly because Europe's population is ageing: by 2035, cancer will be the leading cause of death in the EU. In 2021, the EC published its ‘Europe's Beating Cancer Plan’ (EBCP), calling for a big push in cancer research. Cancer diagnostics and therapeutics should rapidly become more effective and selective, patient-friendly and personalized.

All these goals are directly addressed by developing better tumor targeting strategies. Typically, they consist of equipping diagnostics and therapeutics with a vector unit. The vector unit binds to a protein that is overexpressed on cancer cells or in the Tumor Micro-Environment (TME), causing the diagnostic or therapeutic payload to accumulate in the tumor. Over the last decades, huge effort has gone in approaches that use antibodies as vectors, but return-on-investment has overall been rather poor. Exciting, recent innovations rely on small molecule vectors that target TME proteases. Proteases are ideal candidates for tumor targeting: they are often strongly overexpressed in the TME and possess an active site that allows high-affinity anchoring of vectors. Members of this consortium have played a leading role in these developments.

OncoProTools wants to force breakthroughs in cancer diagnosis and therapy by:
1) Exploring innovative venues for protease targeting in CAR T cell therapy.
2) Discovering novel vectors that bind to other TME proteases: cathepsins S, B, L and granzyme B
3) Personalize applications of protease targeting: deliver innovative diagnostics through deeper understanding of TME biology.

At the same time, OncoProTools will deliver a training program that truly captures the MSCA values, to 10 Doctoral Candidates. They will be provided with all capabilities to become leaders of tomorrow's R&I in Europe.

Coordinatore

UNIVERSITEIT ANTWERPEN
Contribution nette de l'UE
€ 525 240,00
Indirizzo
PRINSSTRAAT 13
2000 Antwerpen
Belgio

Mostra sulla mappa

Regione
Vlaams Gewest Prov. Antwerpen Arr. Antwerpen
Tipo di attività
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
Collegamenti
Costo totale
Nessun dato

Partecipanti (7)

Partner (13)