Difference between revisions of "Team:Freiburg/Overview"
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| − | id="text4228">Inflamed | + | id="text4228"> |
| + | <tspan x="500" y="600">Inflamed area of colon epithelium - in case of ulcerative </tspan> | ||
| + | <tspan x="500" y="630">colitis parts of colon and rectum are inflamed because </tspan> | ||
| + | <tspan x="500" y="660">of an autoimmune reaction.</tspan> | ||
| + | </text> | ||
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| − | <tspan x="500" y="600">Carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) | + | <tspan x="500" y="600">Carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) - in the inflamed area the</tspan> |
| − | <tspan x="500" y="630"> | + | <tspan x="500" y="630">expression of CEA is higher than in the healthy tissue. This makes</tspan> |
| + | <tspan x="500" y="660">them a perfect target for our project. </tspan> | ||
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| − | <tspan x="500" y="600"> | + | <tspan x="500" y="600">Carrier - Using the endospores of Bacillus subtilis as a</tspan> |
| − | <tspan x="500" y=" | + | <tspan x="500" y="630">carrier we receive a tool with multivalency. This increases</tspan> |
| + | <tspan x="500" y="660"> the specificity of binding to diseased tissue in comparison</tspan> | ||
| + | <tspan x="500" y="690">to healthy tissue where CEA is expressed in low concentration.</tspan> | ||
| + | <tspan x="500" y="720">To gain multivalency a carrier is used.</tspan> | ||
| + | </text> | ||
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Revision as of 02:20, 18 October 2016
Overview
The treatment of diseases while avoiding systemic side effects is still a major obstacle in modern medicine. After administration, conventional drugs are distributed throughout the whole body thus affecting both, diseased and healthy cells. Current strategies on targeted drug delivery are mainly based on the applications of antibody-drug conjugates or nanoparticles. However, both approaches revealed considerable challenges in their application due to short half-life and expensive production, respectively. We develop a novel platform for targeted drug delivery by implementing highly specific nanobodies directed against surface markers of affected cells. The combination with an enzymatic functionality facilitates the local activation of prodrugs, thus preventing unnecessary side effects by systemic drug dispersal. By engineering the spores of probiotic Bacillus subtilis, a member of the human microbiome, we establish a low-cost carrier for well-tolerated treatment.
