# Renal Cell Carcinoma Surveillance by Immuno-Lipoplex Nanoparticle Platform

> **NIH NIH R21** · UT SOUTHWESTERN MEDICAL CENTER · 2020 · $229,134

## Abstract

Project Summary
Kidney cancer is a common and deadly malignancy, with more than 73,000 new cases and 14,000 deaths
estimated to occur in 2019 in the United States. Renal cell carcinoma (RCC) is the most prevalent type,
accounting for more than 90% of all kidney cancers. Surgical resection is the treatment choice for localized RCC,
however, patients with RCC are often deemed unfit for surgery because of multiple comorbidities. Stereotactic
body radiotherapy (SBRT), characterized by the delivery of high doses of ionizing radiation in a few fractions,
can overcome the radioresistance of RCC and achieve high therapeutic efficiency. Therefore, SBRT is currently
considered as an alternative treatment option to manage non-operable patients. Post-treatment surveillance,
established on the belief that detecting asymptomatic disease recurrence offers an optimal opportunity for
beneficial intervention, is an integral part of RCC care. However, detecting RCC biomarkers by conventional
methods requires large sample volumes and tedious work. No molecular biomarkers have been reliably validated
or integrated into daily clinical practice to rationally guide kidney cancer therapy after SBRT. Thus, identifying
potential RCC post-treatment biomarkers after irradiation with minimum sample preparation and high sensitivity
would be invaluable. Recently, ‘liquid biopsy’ relying on detecting circulating tumor cells (CTCs), circulating
transcripts, RNAs (miRNAs/mRNAs), and tumor-related genes has been investigated as a potential diagnostic
and prognostic biomarker for various cancers. Extracellular vesicles (EVs) such as exosomes are difficult to
detect and all current approaches to detect EVs have proven to be tedious, expensive, and time consuming. The
primary objective of this R21 proposal is to develop and evaluate a newly developed immune-tethered lipoplex
nanoparticle (ILN) technology system for preclinical molecular diagnosis. ILNs are designed to provide a simple,
non-invasive, and low-cost method for RCC surveillance after SBRT. To achieve this goal, we have developed
a biochip with nanoparticles containing specific molecular beacons (MBs) inside and RCC-specific antibody on
the surface. The antibodies can capture EVs with specific RCC surface receptors, and then MBs can bind to the
target EV RNAs to produce fluorescence that can be recorded by total internal reflection fluorescence
microscope (TIRF). This new biochip allows capturing homogeneous EV subgroups secreted from RCC tumor
cells, and measuring both EV RNA and membrane protein targets in a single step. If successfully implemented,
this diagnostic and surveillance tool, could be highly transformative for the surveillance of patients with cancer.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10044277
- **Project number:** 1R21CA252344-01
- **Recipient organization:** UT SOUTHWESTERN MEDICAL CENTER
- **Principal Investigator:** Wen Jiang
- **Activity code:** R21 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $229,134
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2020-06-01 → 2022-05-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10044277

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10044277, Renal Cell Carcinoma Surveillance by Immuno-Lipoplex Nanoparticle Platform (1R21CA252344-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10044277. Licensed CC0.

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