Nanomedicine for generic use: an anticancer – antifungal – antibacterial formulation

The use of nanomaterials in biomedical applications is vastly increasing, where the main focus lies on the use of various types of nanomaterials for cancer therapy. Recently, our group has demonstrated that specifically designed inorganic (doped) nanoparticles could be efficiently used to generate cancer-specific toxicity. In the present project, we aim to explore these and newly developed nanoparticles for their use in cancer therapy and cancer-associated diseases. As it has been shown that patients being treated for cancer are at high risk for infectious complications, generally due to colonizing organisms that gain access to sterile sites via disrupted epithelial barriers, the efficacy of the nanoparticles for cancer therapy will be studied along with their efficacy against bacterial and fungal infections, compared to normal chemotherapeutics. To study these effects, the following goals are set: - study the toxicity of the nanoparticles on cultured cells, both normal and cancerous cells as well as bacteria and fungi - study the efficacy of the nanoparticles on treating biofilms compared to free bacteria and fungi; explore alternative means for biofilm destruction by optical or magnetic hyperthermia - explore the in vivo efficacy of the NPs in animal models of bacterial and fungal biofilm development by means of local and systemic NP administration; if need be improve targeting to biofilms by means of peptide-functionalized nanoparticles - explore the in vivo efficacy of NPs in animals with both cancer and infections compared to normal chemotherapeutics