Nanoparticle-based gene delivery systems for childhood brain cancer therapy

Project summary

Brain cancers are the leading cause of disease-related death in children. Treatment for these cancers is aggressive and includes chemotherapy, surgery, and radiotherapy. However, this aggressive treatment often results in collateral damage to healthy brain tissue, leading to long-term health and learning challenges for survivors of childhood brain cancer. This project aims to develop novel strategies for gene delivey systmes for improve the treatment of childhood brain cancer.

The approach combines iron nanoparticles (which have been utilised in clinical settings) with particular polymers to generate nanoparticles with a narrow size range that are stable and have not demonstrated any cytotoxicity in work to date. The nanoparticles can then release their payload with high efficiency in tumour microenvironment. In addtion, the surface design of the nanoparticles will allow the penetration of the blood brain barrier for improved delivery and therapeutic efficacy.