We have a great pleased to announce that prof. Kamila Sadowska from IBIB PAN, has been awarded funding for the project entitled "Enzyme Based Metal Organic Frameworks for Cancer Treatment".
The project was submitted jointly with Abdelkader Zebda from Université Grenoble Alpes within the competition for joint research projects between the Republic of Poland and the French Republic PHC Polonium 2024 NAWA - National Agency for Academic Exchange.
Congratulations
The aim of the project is to develop enzyme-inorganic systems for effective anticancer therapy using a biocatalyst. Regulation of lactate levels in the tumor microenvironment may be a promising approach to control cancer cell proliferation and immune suppression to inhibit the growth of pathological tissue. Lactate oxidase, in the presence of oxygen, catalyzes the formation of pyruvate from lactate, with the release of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), a compound with high cytotoxicity. After introducing lactate oxidase into the tumor environment, proliferation is inhibited due to a decrease in lactate concentration and cells are destroyed in reaction to the released hydrogen peroxide. Unfortunately, the need to administer high concentrations of the enzyme to maintain the required level of enzymatic activity under physiological conditions leads to the release of large amounts of H2O2, which also destroys healthy cells. In this project, we propose the development of enzyme-inorganic systems based on lactate oxidase with controlled composition and size (micro- and nanometric dimensions) to effectively target the tumor microenvironment and eliminate the problems associated with administering high doses of the enzyme in its native form.
