Executive Summary : | This proposal is about developing novel next-generation Cu and Ru based anticancer agents. Cancer is the second leading cause of death accounting for nearly 10 million deaths in 2020. Discovery of cisplatin opened the doorway to the development of other non-organic cytostatic drugs. However, drug resistance is common, and it has a deplorable range of side effect. Copper and ruthenium complexes are attractive candidates to induce apoptosis in cancer cells via several mechanisms and thus, making it difficult for resistance development. With the limitations and side-effects induced by the current anticancer drugs, development of an alternative option is the need of the hour. The current proposal will be an effort in this direction for developing more effective Cu and Ru complexes. If a more biocompatible moiety (biotin, NSAID, RM26 for GRPR binding etc.) is attached to coordination sites, it will lead to enhanced bioavailability, specific cancer cell uptake and activity). These complexes can be of great therapeutic potential. Some recent studies are demonstrating such a behaviour of these smart molecules. Therefore, we are particularly interested in preparing bioconjugated Cu and Ru metal complexes, their detailed characterization and applications in cancer cell biology. Our group has recently been able to develop some complexes and studied their initial biological properties with respect to the anticancer activity. We have recently reported these systems and now aiming for developing more advanced molecules incorporating biologically relevant molecules in our systems and to carry out detailed molecular biology experiments for mechanistic investigation. The proposed work will not only benefit the scientific community by providing a library of copper and ruthenium complexes with complete characterization and structural details but might also pave the path to understand the basis of drug development. If one is able to understand what the target of a drug is and how it acts upon it, the synthesis of target-oriented complexes will become much more feasible and strategy-oriented. |