Faculty News
2009 Coulter Funded Projects: "Development of Targeted Polymeric Drug Conjugates for Treatment of Liver Cancer"
Mohamed El-Sayed, PhD, William Ensminger, MD, PhD and Donna Shewach, PhD
Second year of funding - 2009 funding: $146,870; funding to date $246,870
Hepatocellular Carcinoma (HCC) is a predominant form of primary liver cancer that is increasing in incidence in the U.S. Currently, non-surgical treatment options for HCC patients have failed to improve their survival, which remains less than 12 months. These statistics indicate the urgent clinical need for alternative treatment options with improved therapeutic outcomes. In this project, the team is developing a novel drug delivery system for treatment of primary liver cancer particularly HCC. Specifically, the team will attach a chemotherapeutic agent to a series of water-soluble polymers via covalent, enzyme-sensitive, linkages to prepare nano-sized polymer-anticancer drug conjugates. These conjugates will selectively accumulate in the tumor tissue and produce tissue- and cell-specific release of the loaded chemotherapeutic agent leading to hepatic cancer cell death. Successful development of the proposed conjugates will provide a new treatment strategy with a significant commercial potential particularly with the increasing number of patients diagnosed with primary liver cancer each year. In addition, this strategy can be further exploited for delivery of other classes of drug molecules for treatment of hepatic cancer.
Funding for this research through the Coulter Program will allow the team to develop this innovative drug delivery system for treatment of HCC, which will provide sufficient proof-of-concept data that will be used for IP disclosure and support commercialization plans.
A list of all the U-M Coulter funded projects is found on the UM BME Coulter Site.
Posted on July 16, 2009, 1:40 pm