Summary

Pancreatic cancer is the 7th highest cause of cancer mortality in the world and is expected to become a major healthcare problem in the following years. Actual treatments have demonstrated low efficiency due to late diagnosis and aggressive illness progression. For this reason, new approaches need to be considered. This thesis uses hollow nanocapsules conjugated with specific antibodies, that can target and actuate more specifically at the tumour site, avoiding side effects and increasing therapeutic efficacy. It specifically aims at evaluating if the nanoformulation, through the specific interaction between antibody and target, can block the target’s activity, thus obtaining an active pharmacological effect. In this case we expect to measure a reduction in the invasiveness and cell proliferation, critical parameters for tumour metastasis. This proposal is expected to improve blocking effect when compared to free specific antibody, by incorporating nanoscience properties that could rise the pharmacological effect. To do so, a multiparameter analysis is performed, that compares the blocking effect of a chosen antibody over different concentration and conjugations, by inducing the activation of the target and measuring its effects under the determined conditions.