ChiralBoost · Development of Chiral Carbon Dots for Boosting Cancer Immunotherapy

Cancer immunotherapy is considered an effective cancer treatment strategy. However, there are still some obstacles, including the unresponsive state of the immune system to tumor antigen stimulation. In the last years, researchers have found that nanomaterials can modulate the immune system. Among many excellent nanomaterials, carbon-based nanomaterials stand out due to their good biocompatibility. Compared to the rich research on carbon nanotubes and graphene oxide, the research on carbon dots (CDs) in immunotherapy is still in its infancy. In ChiralBoost, we intend to explore the application of chiral carbon dots (Ch-CDs) in cancer immunotherapy. Ch-CDs will be synthesized by hydrothermal and microwave methods using protected L/D-tyrosine and L/D-tryptophan as precursors. Then, a tumor antigen model ovalbumin peptide and the immune adjuvant monophosphoryl lipid A will be grafted onto the Ch-CDs through post-functionalization. Next, the interaction and the immune response of the Ch-CDs on primary immune cells in vitro and in vivo, such as the ability to accelerate dendritic cell maturation and the ability to stimulate cytokine production will be explored. The generated results will open the way to explore the potential of Ch-CDs in cancer immunotherapy The conduct of this project is not only expected to the development of Ch-CDs-based anticancer nanomedicines but will also pave the way for biomedical applications of chiral nanomaterials in other potential clinical applications. The assembled research team is totally capable of achieving the ambitious objectives of the proposed project. The researcher, Dr. Hu, is a multidisciplinary researcher specializing in diverse carbon nanomaterials. The main supervisor (Dr. Alberto Bianco, Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology, CNRS) is among the pioneers of biomedical carbon-nanomaterials research, and the secondment co-supervisor (Prof. Sara Bals, University of Antwerp) is a renowned expert on microscopic techniques.