NEW METAL-BASED MICELLES AS ANTICANCER AGENTS

Cancer is a leader cause of death worldwide. One of the problems associated with the current chemotherapeutic options is the noxious side effects caused by the lack of selectivity. In this frame, our research group has been committed to the development of a new Ru and Fe macrometallodrugs.[1] The data obtained so far shows that these compounds present an intrinsic selectivity towards cancer cells (relatively to healthy cells) due to the incorporation of polymeric ligands that promote a passive targeting through the cancer cell membrane. These results prompted us to the development of new macrometallodrugs bearing bioessential metals such as Fe, Zn and Co. We used a ‘M(bipy) 3 ’ scaffold (bipy = 2,2’-bipyridine derivatives) for the synthesis of the new compounds due to the promising cytotoxicity results observed for related compounds.[2] As polymeric ligands we have chosen the polylactide-co-polyethylene glycol amphiphilic copolymer that is able to self-assemble into micelles in water, keeping the metal center hidden, like a Trojan horse. We will present the synthesis and characterization of the new compounds and some preliminary data on their ability to form stable micelles (Figure 1).