Development of supramolecular metallacages for use as drug delivery systems for applications in cancer therapy

Author

Puigseslloses i Sánchez, Pol  

Abstract

Cisplatin is currently among the most effective and widely used chemotherapeutic agents employed for cancer therapy. Yet, it suffers from a series of drawbacks due to its lack of selectivity, thus extending its toxicity to healthy tissues. Great research efforts have been devoted in the recent years to overcome these issues; among them, the development of drug delivery vehicles capable to protect the drug while in circulation and to facilitate its uptake in cancer cells. In this context, the so-called supramolecular coordination complexes (SCC), and particularly, 3D metallacages, have arisen as promising drug delivery systems. These supramolecular structures are well-defined, discrete entities formed by the self-assembly of bidentate ligand scaffolds with a metal precursor, providing an internal cavity that can be exploited for its host-guest properties to encapsulate small drug molecules.
Recently, Casini and co-workers developed a range of Pd2L4 metallacages (L = ligand) holding promise as drug delivery systems for cisplatin. This work focuses on expanding this library of Pd2L4 metallacages, benefiting from their tolerance to functionalization with a number of functional groups to achieve fine-tuned properties, such as improved solubility, fluorescence and the ability to encapsulate and release cisplatin. Moreover, this project is aimed to the synthesis and study of a fluorescently labelled metallacage for future applications in in vitro imaging, in order to consolidate our understanding of the underlying mechanisms of cell uptake.

Director

Casini, Angela 

Degree

IQS SM - Master’s Degree in Pharmaceutical Chemistry

Date

2020-04-19