Using targeted nanomedicine to cause less side-effects with chemotherapy

Grant Information

Institution - Queen's University Belfast 
Researcher - Dr Wafa Al-Jamal
Grant award - £749,218
Duration of funding - 2014-2019
Status - Complete
Reference - CDF12-002 

Why did we fund this project?

• Chemotherapy is a common treatment used in advanced prostate cancer. However, like all cancer treatments, there are potential side effects. 
• There's an urgent need for targeted treatments that are better at specifically killing the cancer cells and not damaging healthy cells. Achieving this would mean less side effects for men.
• Dr Al-Jamal and her team are using a technique called targeted nanomedicine, which uses nano-carriers (60-80x smaller than a human hair!) to transport chemotherapy drugs to cancer cells. They can then gently heat the nano-carriers to ensure they only release the chemotherapy where the cancer cells are.

The project in a nutshell

• Dr Al-Jamal is attempting to design and create nano-carriers loaded with chemotherapy to target cancer cells without causing as much damage to healthy cells.
• The team showed that the nano-carriers loaded with chemotherapy extended the lives of mice with tumours - this would be very promising if these results could be shown in men.

What did the team do?

• The team successfully designed and created a nano-carrier capable of holding the inactive chemotherapy. 
• When the chemotherapy comes into contact with a target that is only found in prostate cancer cells, it becomes activated and then gains a toxic effect.
• These nano-carriers holding the chemotherapy were made to be extra-sensitive to mild heat and so when they reach their correct location, they can be gently heated, causing a release of the chemotherapy at the cancer cells specific location.
• The team tested these nano-carries in prostate cancer cell lines and also in mouse models to determine whether their treatment was effective, safe and reduced side effects.

What did the team achieve?

• Dr Al-Jamal and team managed to successfully create a nano-carrier that held chemotherapy that became active in the presence of a target and then released its contents fully in the presence of mild heat.
• These chemotherapy loaded nano-carriers were tested in mouse models where the team showed that mice with tumours had prolonged survival when treated using this method. 
• The team are aiming to improve the method they use to get the chemotherapy into the nano-carriers and to further test the safety of this method, before taking this further to men.

What does this mean for men?

• The team demonstrates that chemotherapy can be successfully loaded into nano-carriers and delivered to target tissues in mice and in cells.
• With further testing on safety and development of this method, the goal would be to bring this into clinical trials with men.
• Hopefully this could also improve how effective chemotherapy is in specifically killing cancer cells and offer a new possibility to treat advanced prostate cancer with less side effects than conventional treatment.