Discovery of anticancer polymeric drugs that mimic the action of TRAIL

Project Information

PolyDrug Discovery

Grant agreement ID: 703466

DOI

10.3030/703466

Project terminated on 1 January 2017

EC signature date 10 February 2016

Start date 1 March 2016

End date 28 February 2018

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Total cost

€ 173 857,20

EU contribution

€ 173 857,20

Coordinated by

KAROLINSKA INSTITUTET
Sweden

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - PolyDrug Discovery (Discovery of anticancer polymeric drugs that mimic the action of TRAIL)

Reporting period: 2016-03-01 to 2018-02-28

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The objective of this project was to develop a polymeric drug (PolyDrug) that mimics the activity of tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis inducing ligand (TRAIL) for the treatment of breast cancer. Having such a polymeric and therefore synthetic replacement for this therapeutic would have tremendous benefits including greater drug stability and biodistribution. Therefore, this project outlined a two year plan to develop such a drug by following the standard drug discovery process.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

While this fellowship is being terminated early, I have achieved the goals set out over this 10 month period. This progress is critical as I plan to continue this project in my lab at Rutgers University. I was successful in preparing a variety of death receptor targeting peptides and managed to select a few peptides with low nM affinity towards this receptor. This was a main objective of this first year and these peptides will move on to further evaluation in my new position. During this first year, I also optimized the technique for preparing the polymers and showed that we are able to make all drug variations needed for the drug discovery process. In parallel, I also developed the drug screening cell culture assay that is need to run the drug discovery process. This culmination of this work puts me on target with the fellowship in order to continue at Rutgers University.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

This project is ongoing in my new position and the expected impact is still to be determined. Hopefully in one years time (as originally outlined), we will have a better update on the overall impact of this research.

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