The CONCORD kick-off meeting took place at the Hospital Clinic, Carrer de Villarroel, 170, 08036 Barcelona, Spain.
The CONCORD project aims to improve the immunotherapy of Chronic
Lymphocytic Leukaemia thanks to nanomedicine and has started with a
meeting on Monday 4 and Tuesday 5 March at the Hospital Clínic de
Barcelona – IDIBAPS. The objective of the project, selected through the
EuroNanoMed III Programme of the European Commission, is to improve CAR T
(Chimeric Antigen Receptor T) cell therapy, which consists of modifying
the patients’ own T lymphocytes in order to make them more efficient in
the fight against the disease.
The lymphocytes improved by this therapy contain new genetic
information in the form of messenger RNA (mRNA). These are lymphocytes
that present a new chimeric receptor on their surface that manages to
direct them specifically against tumour cells. The problem with this
strategy is that mRNAs degrade rapidly and their therapeutic effect
lasts 24-48 hours when they should be able to be maintained for a few
weeks in order to achieve a complete cure.
Thanks to the use of gold nanoparticles the mRNAs will be released in
a controlled way into the T cells, thus achieving a more sustained
therapeutic effect. Gold nanoparticles offer at the same time
biocompatibility, the possibility of modifying their surface to
transport different substances and optical properties that facilitate
the tracing of their evolution within the body.
The project is coordinated from the ICN2, a BIST and CSIC centre, by Dr. Neus G. Bastús, Ramón y Cajal researcher of the ICN2 Group of Inorganic Nanoparticles led by ICREA Prof. Víctor F. Puntes,
and counts with the participation of the teams from the Hospital Clínic
de Barcelona – IDIBAPS (Spain), the IRCCS – Istituto di Ricerche
Farmacologiche “Mario Negri” from Milà (Italy) and the Tel Aviv
University in Tel Aviv (Israel). CONCORD is part of the EuroNanoMed III
programme (2016-2021) of the ERA-Net Cofund Action en Nanomedicina,
which is part of the European Commission’s Horizon 2020.
