About Neosetac

 

The NEOSETAC project will demonstrate the anti-cancer therapeutic potential of a novel Selenium-based therapy for managing breast cancer. A recent clinical study shows that high selenium exposure could decrease cancer risk, especially high plasma/serum selenium and novel selenium. NEOSETAC will demonstrate the potential of Selenium-based compounds to attack breast cancer cells; these compounds will be encapsulated in a targeted nanocapsule that will drive the compounds directly to the cancer cells. The overall research and development goal of the proposed action is twofold: to design and manufacture the Se-nanocapsules to treat breast cancer and demonstrate their therapeutic potential in pre-clinical studies.

The project is managed by the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) and coordinated by Professor Manuel Valiente.

  • The European Chronic Diseases Alliance has defined cancer as one of the major non-communicable diseases, accounting for 13% of the deaths worldwide, resulting in 8.2 million deaths annually.
  • In the NEOSETAC project, breast cancer will be the focus of study, being the most common cancer in women. It comprises 10.4% of all cancer incidences among women, causing 411 093 deaths annually worldwide.
  • In Europe, there is more than twice the amount of new breast cancer cases annually than new cases of cancer anywhere else in the world.
  • The complexity of breast cancer makes it a big challenge for successful treatment. The NEOSETAC project will demonstrate the anti-cancer therapeutic potential of a novel Selenium based therapy for managing breast cancer.
  • The clinical application of Selenium (Se) compounds for cancer treatment is until now limited in chemoprevention as dietary supplement.
  • In this proposal, we aim to improve the therapeutic window, pharmacokinetic properties and target drug delivery via nanoparticles (NPs).
  • By loading Se into biodegradable NPs, drug release is controlled within the narrow therapeutic window of Se. At the same time, the uptake and activation of Se compounds at the desired location (tumor lesions and metastasis) is achieved.

We also propose to functionalize NPs by cancer cell/cancer stem cell, targeting ligands to further improve the therapeutic efficacy and prevent cancer recurrence after chemotherapy. These advantages will lead to enhanced anticancer activity and reduced systemic toxicity. Moreover, targeting via NPs will improve the pharmacokinetic properties and increase the relatively short half-life (~18 hours) of Selenium.

The matrix workflow introduced here provides an overview of the relevant synergies as well as the inter and intra-sectorial interactions between partners that will be carried out through the planned activities, based on partners’ corresponding expertise and intuitively provides a formulation of the Transfer of Knowledge (ToK) activities required to understand the whole scenario.