Cancer diseases and the treatment itself, at the current time, represent a major problem for the medical profession and public health around the world. They are one of the leading causes of death both in the developed world and elsewhere. The treatment itself still represents a big problem, as does the range of active substances, their effectiveness and selectivity against cancer cells. For this reason, the development of active agents is directed towards the discovery of targets that would offer a more selective treatment of this disease together with a reduced incidence of side effects of the therapy.
Type IIα topoisomerase represents a good potential target, as the expression of this enzyme is increased in rapidly dividing cells, which is also a characteristic of cancer cells. The enzyme itself catalyzes a fairly complex process, so the set of targets is quite extensive. One of the possibilities is the binding site of the ATP molecule. The active substances that act on this site are catalytic topoisomerase inhibitors and with their action offer a different and more selective method of treatment than the currently clinically used topoisomerase poisons. During this master's thesis, we will focus on the synthesis of new catalytic inhibitors of human topoisomerase IIα. These active substances compete with the ATP molecule for the binding site on the N-terminal part of the enzyme, thereby preventing or they stop the catalytic cycle of the enzyme.
The experimental part consisted of the synthesis and analysis of new catalytic inhibitors of topoisomerase IIα of the 3,4-dichloro-5-methylpyrrolamide type, which act as competitive inhibitors (competing with the ATP molecule for the binding site). In addition, we included a fluorophore scaffolding in the structure of the inhibitor itself. During the synthesis work, we were aided by using liquid chromatography methods, mass spectroscopy coupled with liquid chromatography. We used thin-layer chromatography and nuclear magnetic resonance to confirm the structure of the compounds as a tool for monitoring the reactions.
It would be reasonable to repeat the reaction steps to obtain the final compounds in order to evaluate the inhibitory abilities, IC50 and fluorophoric properties. The results could be used to design new derivatives and improve the solubility of the active ingredients themselves.
|