PhD defence: Nanobody-conjugated nanoparticles for photodynamic therapy: steps towards a targeted therapy for cholangiocarcinoma

My PhD dissertation was focused on improving the efficacy of photodynamic therapy for patients with cholangiocarcinoma, a malignancy that arises in the biliary tree of the liver and whose prognosis is very poor (only about 30% of the people with cholangiocarcinoma survive the 1st year after the diagnose).

Photodynamic therapy is a safe cancer treatment with very low side-effects compared to chemotherapy because the drug (known as photosensitizer) given to patients needs to be locally activated with light to induce the death of cancer cells. Photodynamic therapy has already been shown to increase the survival of these patients, however there are several aspects that need to be improved to increase its efficacy including increasing the amount of photosensitizer that reaches the tumor cells.

In my thesis we used different nanoparticles (particles with diameters below 200 nanometers) to encapsulate photosensitizers and increase their specific accumulation in the tumor. Moreover, to increase the probability of the cancer cells to internalize these nanoparticles, we added on their surface a fragment of an antibody (known as a nanobody) only found in camelids that can bind to cancer cells and leave the healthy cells intact.