Metallo Nucleosides: Gold Complexes with Antimetabolite Ligands

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Ingo Ott
• Subject Area: Biological and Biomimetic Chemistry ; Pharmacy
• Term: from 2019 to 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 409903581

Gold has been playing an important role in medicine tracing back thousands of years. Recently, the interest in gold complexes therapeutic drugs has come to new life as exemplified by several ongoing clinical trials on the lead compound Auranofin. However, the biggest challenges of the approved gold drugs are related to their insufficient chemical and metabolic stability as well as to their low selectivity. This project aims at the design of new gold anticancer metallodrugs, which could overcome these major limitations. The new agents contain nucleoside and carbohydrate moieties to facilitate targeting and to improve the antiproliferative potency. The project will be performed in form of a bilateral collaboration between German and Russian scientists. The new compounds will be subjected to a detailed chemical and biological investigation making use of the complementary research expertise of both partners. Selected promising lead candidates will be studied further in-vivo and provide the basis for a possible future translation into application.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: Russia
• Partner Organisation: Russian Foundation for Basic Research
• Cooperation Partners: Professorin Dr. Elena Milaeva; Professor Dr. Alexander I. Nazarov