# Incorporation of quantitative SRS imaging in sEISA for developing anticancer nanomedicines

> **NIH NIH R01** · BRANDEIS UNIVERSITY · 2022 · $228,691

## Abstract

ABSTRACT
Despite the progress in molecular therapy and immunotherapy, multiple underlying cellular mechanisms cause
resistance to cancer therapy. There are urgent needs to develop innovative approaches to meet these
challenges. The proposed study is to develop subcellular enzyme-instructed self-assembly (sEISA), which
includes mitochondrial EISA (mitoEISA) and cytoplasmic EISA (cytoEISA), for generating molecular nanofibers
to overcome drug resistance and immunosuppression in cancer therapy. Our preliminary studies have shown
that sEISA selectively targets the mitochondria of cancer cells and minimizes drug resistance. Most importantly,
our preliminary study shows that sEISA inhibits the growth of immunosuppressive tumors in vivo. Thus, we
propose to further develop sEISA against drug resistant cancer cells and tumors. The proposed research has
four specific aims: Aim 1, developing mitoEISA for selectively targeting cancer cells; Aim 2, developing cytoEISA
for minimizing drug resistance and immunosuppression; Aim 3, evaluating sEISA in ovarian cancer xenograft
murine models; and this two-year project will add a new Aim to the R01 research— Aim 4, applying quantitative
SRS imaging for the label-free single cell analysis of nanofiber formation and cancer metabolism upon sEISA.
The central hypothesis is that sEISA spatiotemporally generates molecular nanofibers, which interact with
multiple cellular proteins and interrupt multiple cellular processes inside cancer cells to minimize drug resistance.
Our preliminary results support the central hypothesis. The innovation is that the mechanisms of the action of
the molecular nanofibers significantly depart from the ligand-receptor dogma of the current anticancer drugs.
The long-term goal of the proposed work is to develop sEISA to generate molecular nanofibers for overcoming
resistance in cancer therapy. We anticipate that this research will provide innovative anticancer approaches to
address the problems of drug resistance and immunosuppression in cancer therapy, thus ultimately will improve
the survivorship of cancer patients.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10413651
- **Project number:** 3R01CA142746-12S1
- **Recipient organization:** BRANDEIS UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Bing Xu
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $228,691
- **Award type:** 3
- **Project period:** 2010-02-08 → 2026-02-28

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10413651

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10413651, Incorporation of quantitative SRS imaging in sEISA for developing anticancer nanomedicines (3R01CA142746-12S1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-26 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10413651. Licensed CC0.

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