Abstract
Phototheranostic molecules find applications both as photosensitizers (PS) in photodynamic therapy and as diagnostic agents, in fluorescence imaging. Due to their low stability in a physiological environment and non-specific cellular uptake, phototheranostic molecules still present important restrictions in their exploitation in the biomedical field.
The recent use of refactored bacteriophages (phages) as a targeted delivery system is opening new routes in personalized medicine. The orthogonal strategy of PhageLight allows the engineering of a modular bionanotechnological platform that genetically displays a biorecognition moiety fused on the minor coat protein and chemically modifies the major coat protein of the capsid with light-sensitive molecules.
PhageLight takes advantage of the well-defined molecular biology of the M13 phage to bioconjugate its capsid with photoactive molecules and target this suicide vector selectively to ovarian cancer cells (OC) cells via phage display of single-chain variable fragments, for precision medicine applications. PhageLight will target specifically selected folate receptor alpha (FRa), that is frequently overexpressed in various OCs. At the end of the project, an innovative theranostic platform to selectively detect, image, and kill ovarian cancer (OC) cells will be developed.
Scientific responsible of the Department
Dr. Matteo Di Giosia
Partnership
Università di Bologna – Dipartimento di Farmacia e Biotecnologie
Università di Bologna – Dipartimento di Scienze Mediche e Chirurgiche