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

Cancer is now the number one cause of death worldwide surpassing death by cardiovascular disease in individuals 80 years old and younger. Despite major advancements in elucidation of the molecular mechanisms in cancer, development of curative and nontoxic therapies has been slow. The startling statistic that 40-45% of Canadians are expected to develop cancer in their lives, dictates that new treatments for cancer are urgently needed. Cancer vaccines are new non-toxic cancer treatments, which are based on the stimulation of the immune system using cancer antigens with the goal of immune-mediated eradication of cancer cells. Cancer vaccines have shown excellent outcomes in preclinical assessments, but their success in clinics has been limited. A major limitation of current cancer vaccines is that the immune responses elicited by cancer vaccines are weak. In addition, studies from our lab and others show that the immunosuppressive environment of the tumor can inhibit anti-tumor activity of immune cells. This project aims to develop new cancer vaccines with enhanced immunogenicity to elicit stronger responses against cancer cells; and also adjuvant targeted therapeutics that can reverse the immunosuppressive microenvironment of the tumor. Under this objective, two types of nanocarriers will be developed. One for targeted delivery of cancer vaccines to denderitic cells, the key cells responsible for immune response against cancer. The second carrier will be designed to selectively deliver inhibitors of a key protein responsible for immunesuppressive properties of tumor, known as STAT3, to the tumor microenvironment. The results of this research are expected to lead to the development of ready to use cancer vaccines and vaccination strategies that can induce strong immune response against cancer leading to cancer eradication and cure.