Dendritic cells main function is to process antigen material and present it on the cell surface to the T cells of the immune system. They act as messengers between the innate and the adaptive immune systems. They are THE ACTIVATORS of the immune response in our body.
Therefore, they have great potential as potentiators of the immune system to treat many diseases that are not innately tackled by our immune system.
Together with our friends at Hospital Clínic de Barcelona Daniel Benitez Ribas Cristina Bayó Llorens and our #EcopolTech leading team Joaquin Daniel Bonelli Blasco and Josep Rocas, we aim to develop the dendritic cell-targeted nanomedicines of the future.
Back in 2016 we already were able to make dendritic cells tolerogenic by specific targeting of nanoencapsulated corticosteroid #budesonide (Flórez-Grau, G., Rocas, P., Cabezón, R., España, C., Panés, J., Rocas, J., … Benítez-Ribas, D. (2016). Nanoencapsulated budesonide in self-stratified polyurethane-polyurea nanoparticles is highly effective in inducing human tolerogenic dendritic cells. International Journal of Pharmaceutics, 511(2), 785–793. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpharm.2016.07.056).
Now, we aim to go one step further, and make dendritic cells able to recognize malignant melanoma tumor cells through specific activation of the immune system.
How?
< Through collaboration between multidisciplinar groups that respect each others expertise and blend it to create uniquely innovative platform technologies.>