Nanoassemblies for the subcutaneous self-administration of anticancer drugs

Informations projet

THERMONANO

N° de convention de subvention: 771829

DOI

10.3030/771829

Projet clôturé

Date de signature de la CE 6 Mars 2018

Date de début 1 Septembre 2018

Date de fin 29 Février 2024

Financé au titre de

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - European Research Council (ERC)

Coût total

€ 1 759 414,00

Contribution de l’UE

€ 1 759 414,00

Coordonné par

CENTRE NATIONAL DE LA RECHERCHE SCIENTIFIQUE CNRS
France

Periodic Reporting for period 4 - THERMONANO (Nanoassemblies for the subcutaneous self-administration of anticancer drugs)

Période du rapport: 2023-03-01 au 2024-02-29

Résumé du contexte et des objectifs généraux du projet

In the context of the THERMONANO project, we have reported the first preclinical development of a simple, yet efficient, drug delivery approach that enabled the subcutaneous administration of irritant/vesicant anticancer drugs.
We showed that our strategy was safe with no observed local toxicity, and that it led to a significantly greater anticancer efficacy when benchmarked against the commercially available parent drug administered intravenously.
We have therefore developed a breakthrough technology in the field of cancer therapy as this approach may be applied to any kind of anticancer drugs.
If successfully translated to the clinic and to the market, this approach would be more comfortable for the patient compared to the intravenous route as it is less invasive. Also, no hospital stay would be required, thus letting consider at-home chemotherapy and even self-administration.

Travail effectué depuis le début du projet jusqu’à la fin de la période considérée dans le rapport et principaux résultats atteints jusqu’à présent

We first developed new degradable, thermosensitive copolymers that can be hydrolytically degraded much faster than aliphatic polyesters. Those building blocks are now used to make drug-loaded nanocarriers to be injected subcutaneously.
We also found a way to safely administer subcutaneously anticancer drugs. Our system gave higher anticancer efficacy than the commercial formulations of the parent drugs, which is unprecedented in drug delivery and anticancer therapy. A patent was filed (WO 2019097025) and a startup company (https://imescia.com) was created to push forward this breakthrough technology to the clinic.
We have also performed advanced characterizations by SAXS and modeling of a small library of different drug-loaded nanocarriers and will soon achieve a comprehensive structure-solubility/injectability/drug release/toxicity relationships that will greatly help us to select the best candidates for further in vivo studies.
Those systems have also been made: (i) more sophisticated by implementing targeting moieties and (ii) more versatile by applying this strategy to other drugs to broaden the range of type of cancers.

Progrès au-delà de l’état des connaissances et impact potentiel prévu (y compris l’impact socio-économique et les conséquences sociétales plus larges du projet jusqu’à présent)

In the THERMONANO project, we have developed a drug delivery approach that allow to safely administer vesicant/irritant anticancer drugs subcutaneously and that can outperform the commercial formulations of the parent drugs.
This is unprecedented in drug delivery and anticancer therapy as there is no example of such drugs that be administered subcutaneously.
We have also optimized this approach and to apply it to different types of anticancer drugs in order to broaden the range of cancers that can be treated and demonstrate the robustness of this approach.
We have also investigated different ways to perform subcutaneous administration in order to facilitate self-administration and stimulate the development of at-home chemotherapy.

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