Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - BARCODE DIAGNOSTICS (Next-Generation Personalized Diagnostic Nanotechnologies for Predicting Response to Cancer Medicine)

Teaser

Barcode Diagnostics is addressing one of the pressing issues in cancer – determining the best medicine for treating each cancer patient. Our first focus is on breast cancer. Despite being the most prevalent cancer among woman, nearly one-third of patients receive a medicine...

Summary

Barcode Diagnostics is addressing one of the pressing issues in cancer – determining the best medicine for treating each cancer patient. Our first focus is on breast cancer. Despite being the most prevalent cancer among woman, nearly one-third of patients receive a medicine that does affect their primary tumor. In metastatic patients, this becomes even more challenging, where more than half of the patients do not respond to treatment.
Our overall objective is to develop a nanotechnological platform that will perform a rapid diagnostic assay to determine which medicine is best for a specific patients. In parallel, we are working on development of new nanoparticles that can be used as drug production system, opening a new cancer treatment strategies.
To achieve this goals we developed nanoparticles that upon intravenous injection target the cancerous tissue, and perform a diagnostic assay on the malignant cells inside the patient’s body. More specifically, a cocktail of nanoparticles, each loaded with a miniscule dose of a different drug are injected intravenously. The particles were engineered to target the tumor and metastasis. Then, the activity of the different medicines, loaded into each of the particles on the cancer cells, is detected using a newly developed molecular barcoding system.
We believe this approach will provide the medical and scientific communities with better understanding regarding the personalized activity of drugs in patients; and ultimately, will become a new tool for diagnosing and treating cancer.

Work performed

Our studies commenced with developing of the Barcoded Nanoparticles – 100 nanometer liposomes that are loaded with an anti-cancer agent and a molecular barcode that allows tracking the particle in the body.
Then, we proceeded to test this approach in a Triple Negative Breast Cancer (TNBC) model. We showed the barcoded nanoparticle system predicts the activity of the different drugs inside the tumor. Specifically, we were able to distinguish between active and inactive drugs.
Using targeted nanotechnologies allowed rapid analysis of drug activity (96 hours), as well as ensured the safety of the system by using miniscule doses (~1/1000 the therapeutic dose).
Currently, we are looking how different cell types in the tumor microenvironment and metastasis respond to medication, and are correlating this to genomic data.

Final results

This project has progressed extremely positively, expanding the state of the art and demonstrating that nanotechnology can be used as a new tool for facilitating personalized medicine. Conceptually, the project demonstrated that nanoparticles can be used as sensors for diagnosing drug activity, with single-cell precision. Furthermore, nanoparticles loaded with medicines were used mainly in the past for delivering drugs, rather than for diagnosis of drug activity. Combined, with the advancement of the field, this project provides valuable scientific findings in the field of cancer nanotechnology as well as medical promise to improve the care of patients with breast cancer.
I believe this technological platform will be translated to the clinic and will provide patients with an improved treatment option, compared to the current ‘trial-and-error’ reality in the clinic, in which patients are receiving several treatments before finding one that is active.

Website & more info

More info: https://www.schroederlab.com/.