Grant: Operating Grant - PA: Alberta Cancer Foundation - Research (bridge funding)

Cancer has supplanted cardiovascular disease as the number one cause of death in Canada. This dreadful statistics dictates an urgent need for the development of new and more effective cancer treatment strategies. Development and progression of cancer is associated with abnormal expression of several genes known as oncogenes. Silencing of oncogenes has been successfully applied to prevent cancer growth and metastasis in a laboratory setting. This has helped researchers to unravel many molecular mechanisms behind cancer progression. However, clinical application of oncogene silencers as a treatment modality that can correct the abnormal expression of oncogenes has achieved limited success, so far. This is mostly due to the instability of oncogene silencers in the body and/or their inadequate accessibility to their target which is located inside the cancer cells. The objective of this research is to develop carriers in nanometer size range that can hide and protect the oncogene silencers while in the blood stream, but interact with specific molecules expressed on breast cancer cells and deliver their cargo to those cells. Abnormal expression of an important oncogene responsible for breast cancer growth and metastasis, known as hypoxia inducible factor 1 alpha (HIF1-a) will be targeted by oncogene silencers of this project. Efficient silencing of HIF1-a is expected to inhibit the progression of breast tumors to metastatic stage and at the same time enhance the efficacy of breast cancer chemotherapy leading the eradication and cure of the disease.