Targetted treatment of myeloma using drug-loaded immuno-liposomes
Thursday 16 April 2009
Project
One of the challenges in chemotherapy of cancer is to get high concentrations of drugs in the tumor and thereby spare normal tissues. Also in the treatment of myeloma this is an important issue. Myeloma cells are predominantly located in the bone marrow. In this project we want to make use of the fact that myeloma cells typically express CD38 and CD138 on the cell membrane and that on only few normal tissues have a low expression. Using the humanized mouse models that we developed we want to test whether we can specifically deliver drugs at the sites of MM infiltration in the bone marrow by using drug-loaded liposomes coated with monoclonal antibodies recognizing CD38 or CD138. The hypothesis is that the liposomes will only concentrate in regions where they can bind, which is in this case where cells that express the CD38-138 antigens are located. This should lead to an accumulation in the foci of myeloma cells in BM or at extramedulary sites, leading to a local high concentration of drugs upon release from the liposomes.
Techniques
Cell culture, FACS analysis/sorting, viral gene marking, molecular imaging (BLI-Fluor) in animal experiments (optional), luciferase assay, liposome production, MSC expansion/differentiation, immuno-histochemistry
Duration
6 or 9 months
Contact
Dr Anton Martens, a.martens@umcutrecht.nl, 088 75 540 09
Dr Kristin Denzer, k.denzer@umcutrecht.nl, 088 75 576 73
More info
UMC Utrecht - dept. of Immunology
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