SN-38 (or 5-FU) drug encapsulation in liposomes transported by magnetotactic bacteria for localized colorectal cancer treatment

Cancers are treated today with the appropriate combination of chemotherapy drugs, surgery and radiation. Chemotherapy is almost invariably dosed intravenously, and enters the systemic blood flow where it circulates around the whole body, coming into contact with healthy cells as well as cancerous ones. This systemic dosing has two big problems: too little drug gets to cancer cells, and too much drug comes into contact with healthy cells, causing side effects. Frequently, these dose-limiting side-effects prevent us from delivering the maximally effective anti-cancer drug dose.

Professor Sylvain Martel of École Polytechnique de Montreal’s Nanorobotics laboratory has pioneered an approach using special bacteria that can be directed by a magnetic field to deliver chemotherapy directly to the site of tumors, reducing side-effects. With the support of a team of co-investigators from McGill University (Drs. Te Vuong, Gerald Batist, Maryam Tabrizian, Nicole Beauchemin, Danuta Radzioch) and the Université de Montréal (Dr. Louis Gaboury), Dr. Martel has successfully applied for a grant from the Quebec Consortium of Drug Discovery, known by its French acronym as CQDM. This novel approach holds significant promise of improving cancer targeting with chemotherapy

Faculty Supervisor:

Maryam Tabrizian

Student:

Sherief Essa

Partner:

Québec Consortium for Drug Discovery

Discipline:

Engineering - biomedical

Sector:

Life sciences

University:

McGill University