Dual-Drug Conjugated Glyco-Nanoassemblies for Tumor-Triggered Targeting and Synergistic Cancer Therapy

n-Tuples on Scaffold Diversity Inspired by Drug Hybridisation to Enhance Drugability: Application to Cytarabine

A mathematical concept, n-tuples are originally applied to medicinal chemistry, especially with the creation of scaffold diversity inspired by the hybridisation of different commercial drugs with cytarabine, a synthetic arabinonucleoside derived from two marine natural products, spongouridine and spongothymidine. The new methodology explores the virtual chemical-factorial combination of different commercial drugs (immunosuppressant, antibiotic, antiemetic, anti-inflammatory, and anticancer) with the anticancer drug cytarabine. Real chemical combinations were designed and synthesised for 8-duples, obtaining a small representative library of interesting organic molecules to be biologically tested as proof of concept. The synthesised library contains classical molecular properties regarding the Lipinski rules and/or beyond rules of five (bRo5) and is represented by the covalent combination of the anticancer drug cytarabine with ibuprofen, flurbiprofen, folic acid, sulfasalazine, ciprofloxacin, bortezomib, and methotrexate. The insertion of specific nomenclature could be implemented into artificial intelligence algorithms in order to enhance the efficiency of drug-hunting programs. The novel methodology has proven useful for the straightforward synthesis of most of the theoretically proposed duples and, in principle, could be extended to any other central drug.

Smart Magnetic Nanocarriers for Codelivery of Nitric Oxide and Doxorubicin for Enhanced Apoptosis in Cancer Cells

Extremely short half-life therapeutic molecule nitric oxide (NO) plays significant roles in the functioning of various physiological and pathological processes in the human body, whereas doxorubicin hydrochloride (DOX) is a clinically important anticancer drug widely used in cancer chemotherapy. Thus, the intracellular delivery of these therapeutic molecules is tremendously important to achieve their full potential. Herein, we report a novel approach for the development of highly water-dispersible magnetic nanocarriers for codelivery of NO and DOX. Primarily, bifunctional magnetic nanoparticles enriched with carboxyl and thiol groups were prepared by introducing cysteine onto the surface of citrate-functionalized Fe3O4 nanoparticles. DOX was electrostatically conjugated onto the surface of bifunctional nanoparticles via carboxyl moieties, whereas the thiol group was further nitrosated to provide NO-releasing molecules. The developed magnetic nanocarrier exhibited good aqueous colloidal stability, protein resistance behavior, and high encapsulation efficacy for NO (65.5%) and DOX (85%), as well as sustained release characteristics. Moreover, they showed superior cytotoxicity toward cancer (A549 and MCF-7) cells via apoptosis induction over normal (WI26VA4) cells. Specifically, we have developed magnetic nanocarriers having the capability of dual delivery of NO and DOX, which holds great potential for combinatorial cancer treatment.

A Small Sugar Molecule with Huge Potential in Targeted Cancer Therapy

The number of cancer-related diseases is still growing. Despite the availability of a large number of anticancer drugs, the ideal drug is still being sought that would be effective, selective, and overcome the effect of multidrug resistance. Therefore, researchers are still looking for ways to improve the properties of already-used chemotherapeutics. One of the possibilities is the development of targeted therapies. The use of prodrugs that release the bioactive substance only under the influence of factors characteristic of the tumor microenvironment makes it possible to deliver the drug precisely to the cancer cells. Obtaining such compounds is possible by coupling a therapeutic agent with a ligand targeting receptors, to which the attached ligand shows affinity and is overexpressed in cancer cells. Another way is to encapsulate the drug in a carrier that is stable in physiological conditions and sensitive to conditions of the tumor microenvironment. Such a carrier can be directed by attaching to it a ligand recognized by receptors typical of tumor cells. Sugars seem to be ideal ligands for obtaining prodrugs targeted at receptors overexpressed in cancer cells. They can also be ligands modifying polymers' drug carriers. Furthermore, polysaccharides can act as selective nanocarriers for numerous chemotherapeutics. The proof of this thesis is the huge number of papers devoted to their use for modification or targeted transport of anticancer compounds. In this work, selected examples of broad-defined sugars application for improving the properties of both already-used drugs and substances exhibiting anticancer activity are presented.