Opracowanie trójwymiarowego biomimicznego modelu inwazji komórek nowotworowych piersi w celu testowania nowych rozwiązań terapeutycznych

Akronim: BIOCANCER

Numer: POLTUR4/0032/BIOCANCER/2020

Program/Konkurs: IV konkurs na projekty w ramach współpracy polsko-tureckiej POLTUR4

Jednostka finansująca: NCBiR

Kierownik projektu: prof. dr hab. inż. Wojciech Święszkowski

Funkcja: konsorcjant konsorcjum polsko-tureckiego

Czas realizacji: 2021-2024

Opis:

Survival prognosis for patients with advance breast cancer metastasis are rather poor and the available treatment options are also very limited. In currently available cell culture and laboratory animal-based cancer models, the underlying mechanism of breast cancer cells dissemination and its survival at distant locations is still not clearly identified. Despite unprecedented progress of research in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine, simple 3D tissue models that attempt to recapitulate cancer and capillary network, do not use its combination. At that point, there is a pressing need for development of an in vitro platform to investigate complex and pathophysiologically relevant research questions towards the understanding of breast cancer metastatic progression to the distant locations, namely its invasion and intravasation. Here, we propose a cancer intravasation-on-a-chip system allowing tracking of circulating breast cancer tumor cells within a fluidic device that is expected to respond to circulating immune cells. Therefore, the overall objective of this project is to establish a breast cancer intravasation model to test new therapeutic strategies. To reach the project principal, specific, project-related activities will be integrated into four aims:

To develop 3D breast cancer model , which will be obligatory for intravasation testing in presence of perfused vascular lumen in Aim 3 and Aim 4;
To establish perfused engineered blood vessel, which will recapitulate biological hollow like structure to study invasion of breast cancer cells in Aim 3 and Aim 4;
To developed perfused vascularized 3D multi-tissue construct by combining Aim 1 and Aim 2 ;
To investigate the role of immune cells on breast cancer cell intravasation using developed 3D vascularized cancer model (Aim 3).

The main result of the project, which applies to development of novel breast cancer intravasation model will be of high interest for biomaterials and biomedical companies as for the pharmaceutical industry. It is expected that it will also help in understanding the breast cancer cells interactions with constant changing environment during dissemination and metastasis formation. Furthermore, it could also be used in personalized medicine by selection the most effective treatment for individual patients using patient’s own cells in the 3D model.