General data

Project title: ”Targeted Tumor Therapy with multifunctional platinum(IV)-drug conjugates (T³-Pt)”

Project director: Prof. Dr. Evamarie Hey-Hawkins

Project duration: 30 months

Project budget: 6.000.000,00 lei (1.206.612,24 euro)

Name of the institution: Babeș-Bolyai University

Summary

We propose to develop and test new multifunctional coordination compounds aimed at overcoming current limitations of platinum-based anticancer drugs, namely side effects, resistance (e.g., via drug efflux transporters), and limited targeting of cellular mechanisms.
Based on synthetic strategies pioneered by the PI, multifunctional platinum(IV)-drug conjugates will be developed from platinum(II) scaffolds combined with additional therapeutic/diagnostic agents to produce multifunctional therapeutic candidates with the potential to act as theranostics and pro-drugs, thus enhancing selectivity while limiting toxicity. The novelty of the project resides in the nature of the new coordination compounds, specifically the synthesis of multifunctional platinum(IV)-drug conjugates (anticipated to pose interesting issues of coordination chemistry, supramolecular interactions, and redox activity).
The functionality of the complexes will be tested (biochemical interactions with target proteins/enzymes, in vitro cell culture analyses), using state-of-the-art investigative techniques, specifically UV-Vis, fluorescence (including confocal microscopy), vibrational, NMR, and EPR spectroscopy, crystallography, mass spectrometry, electrochemistry, computational chemistry, and immunocytochemistry.

Funded by the European Union – NextGenerationEU and the Romanian Government, under National Recovery and Resilience Plan for Romania Romanian Ministry of Research, Innovation and Digitalization, within Component 9, Investment I8