Grants and Contracts Details
Description
This proposal seeks to develop a novel class of metallo-chemotherapeutic agents that will provide a highly selective, targeted strategy to kill cancer cells and tumors. Currently, cisplatin and its analogues remain the standard therapy for a variety of cancers, despite their nonspecific mechanism of action with nucleic acids, which results in general cytotoxicity and debilitating side-effects. A better approach is to combine the reactivity of metal-based drugs with the selectivity of photodynamic therapy (PDT) to increase the targeting of malignant over healthy tissues. In the proposed project, we wish to develop a new class of ruthenium-based compounds with a readily modifiable modular design that will allow us to rapidly incorporate key molecular components to confer selectivity and controlled reactivity. These compounds are designed to provide localized toxicity when activated with light, but kill cells through a general mechanism that should be applicable to a/l cancer types, and evade issues of acquired resistance. 8y interchanging modular components of the drug molecule, we aim to be able to target different cell types by incorporating cell-specific directing groups. The long term goal is to develop a library of compounds that are non-toxic in the dark, can be directed to different cancer cell types, and upon light activation, become cytotoxic.
Status | Finished |
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Effective start/end date | 3/1/11 → 5/31/12 |
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