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Ruthenium-based photoactivated chemotherapy against eye cancer

Project description

Photoactivated chemotherapy for the treatment of uveal melanoma

Uveal melanoma (UM) is a rare malignancy of the eye. Current treatment options do not always preserve vision or the eye and often result in patient death from metastasis to the liver. Photoactivated chemotherapy (PACT) is an innovative therapeutic solution that involves photosensitive compounds that can kill cancer cells selectively under the action of light. The EU-funded Ru4EYE project aims to develop a pre-clinical proof of concept that ruthenium (Ru)-based PACT compounds can be used to treat uveal melanoma. The success of the project will not only provide pre-clinical proof-of-concept that PACT may become an effective treatment option for uveal melanoma patients, but also accelerate the adoption of Ru-based PACT in the treatment of other diseases as well.

Objective

The Ru4EYE PoC proposal will develop the first pre-clinical evaluation of Ru-based PACT compounds in uveal melanoma (UM) model. UM is a rare malignancy of the eye. Although treatment against UM do exist, they do no always preserve vision or the eye, and often lead to patient death via metastasis to the liver. A better treatment that would save vision, the eye, and the patient, is looked after. UM appears as an appealing disease for photoactivated chemotherapy (PACT), a new form of phototherapy developed within my ERC Starting Grant RuProLight. PACT agents are photosensitive compounds that can kill cancer cells selectively under the action of light. In PACT dioxygen does not need to be present at the site of light irradiation because the mechanism of photochemical activation is an oxygen-independent bond breakage reaction between a bioactive, cytotoxic agent, and a light-removable protecting group. Innovative therapeutic solutions such as PACT are typically difficult to bring to the market because of the risky nature of drug development and the funding required for clinical trials. The vision in this grant proposal is that positive results on a rare form of cancer such as uveal melanoma could not only offer a relatively short-term solution to uveal melanoma patients, but also accelerate translation of Ru-based PACT to the clinics by driving developments for other diseases as well. The biological testing of Ru-based PACT compounds will be performed in a complete series of translational cancer models: from in vitro (2D monolayers of normoxic and hypoxic cancer cells, 3D tumor spheroids) to in vivo (xenografts in zebrafish embryo for studying metastasis formation and treatment, and mouse model for in vivo toxicity and efficacy). The aim is to develop a pre-clinical proof-of-concept that PACT can be used to treat uveal melanoma, so that presentation to venture capital and clinical testing can start quickly after completion of the project.

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Programme(s)

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Topic(s)

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Funding Scheme

Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.

ERC-POC - Proof of Concept Grant

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Call for proposal

Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.

(opens in new window) ERC-2019-PoC

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Host institution

UNIVERSITEIT LEIDEN
Net EU contribution

Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.

€ 150 000,00
Address
RAPENBURG 70
2311 EZ Leiden
Netherlands

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Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
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Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

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Beneficiaries (1)

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