START is based on an Italian patent that concerns the therapeutic use of CD99-null extracellular vesicles and their pharmaceutical composition. In the project, CD99-null vesicles alone or in combination will be tested against Ewing sarcoma, a rare pediatric bone tumor with very limited therapeutic options for patients who do not respond to standard drugs.
The project applies cutting-edge technologies (large-scale drug screenings (HTS); patient-derived xenografts and Zebrafish models; single-cell and spatial transcriptomics) to gain in-depth knowledge of the efficacy of these vesicles against a solid tumor. The effects generated in recipient cells, whether tumoral or normal, will be analyzed and the frequency of administration, as well as the best route of administration to obtain therapeutic effects, will be evaluated.
The project also addresses issues related to the standardization of processing and storage of CD99-null vesicles in order to ensure product compliance and traceability, in view of its potential clinical use.
Four IRCCS partecipate to the project:
- IRCCS Istituto Ortopedico Rizzoli
- Istituto Nazionale Tumori IRCCS "Fondazione G.Pascale"
- IRCCS Istituto Tumori Giovanni Paolo II
- IRCCS Istituto Romagnolo per lo Studio dei Tumori"Dino Amadori"
The PI of the study is Dr. Katia Scotlandi, head of the SSD Laboratory of Experimental Oncology. The following principal investigators participate to the study:
- Dr. Marco Gambarotti, head of the SSD Pathological Anatomy and co-PI of the project
- Dr. Gianluca Giavaresi, acting head of the SC Surgical Sciences and Technologies
- Dr. Alessandra de Feo, a young researcher of the Laboratory of Experimental Oncology
The project was funded thanks to the Proof of Concept PNRR call, which, within the framework of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, financed programs for the valorization of patents or patent applications held by entities belonging to the research world.
