Application

  • Cancer is the leading causes of death in the Western world. Regardless of tremendous progress in pharmaceutical and nanomaterial chemistry, early and accurate detection of the disease remains a major challenge.
  • Cathepsins are a group of enzymes that play a crucial role in protein degradation and turnover within cells. They are primarily found in lysosomes, which are cellular compartments involved in the breakdown of various molecules. Cathepsins are responsible for the degradation of proteins, including those involved in cell signaling, extracellular matrix remodeling, and immune responses. Cathepsins have been implicated in several aspects of tumor progression, invasion, and metastasis.
  • Molecular imaging targets distinct molecular pathways in vivo, providing noninvasive visual and quantitative information for diverse applications.
  • Computed tomography (CT) is an imaging method that uses X-rays to create cross-sectional images of the body. CT instruments are among the most available, efficient, and cost-effective imaging modalities in hospitals. The field of CT molecular imaging is emerging which relies mainly on the detection of gold nanoparticles and iodine-containing compounds directed to tagging a variety of abundant biomolecules.

Our Innovation

A new class of nanosized cathepsin-targeted activity-based probes (ABPs) for functional CT imaging of cancer.

ABPs are small molecules designed to covalently modify enzyme targets in an activity-dependent manner. Using a CT instrument, these novel probes tagged with GNPs (gold nanoparticles) enable the detection of the elevated cathepsin activity within cancerous tissue, thus creating a direct link between biological processes and imaging signals. 

 

Advantages

These novel probes enable detection of the elevated cathepsin activity within cancerous tissue using a CT instrument.

  • Covalent linkage as a key for cancer detection using low-sensitive imaging modalities.
  • Tumor accumulation of the targeted GNP-ABPs is determined by the delicate balance between the targeting moieties’ features and particle size.

Opportunity

Our method of cathepsin activity measurements enables real-time measurements of tumor growth, metastasis formation, and cancer staging in large living organisms.

Our platform could be adapted to target pathologies with high cathepsin activity such as atherosclerosis and arthritis in addition to cancer.