Chemotherapy is still one of the most successful tumour therapies. One of the most used groups of drugs in the treatment of different types of tumour is the one with metal platinum such as cisplatin, carboplatin, oxaliplatin. The antitumor activity of this group is based on the ability of drugs to form adducts by binding to DNA, RNA and proteins triggering in that way DNA damages, production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) etc. Although very potent, there are two major disadvantages which occur during the use of those drugs; development of drug resistance and side effects. Therefore, there is increasing need in synthesis and investigation of novel, organometallic compounds with increased antitumor capacity and decreased side effects.

This multidisciplinary project, supported by Terry Fox Foundation, is focused on synthesis and biological effects of novel, organo -ruthenium, -iridium and -palladium compounds. The goal of the project is to investigate toxicity of newly synthesised organometallic compounds on normal and tumour cell lines and further to investigate more closely molecular mechanisms of toxicity for those compounds for which the highest biological effect was determined.

 This multi-disciplinary project is based on collaboration between several scientific groups: theoretic, inorganic, organic chemists and molecular biologists. Dr. Brozović group is focused on investigation of biological effects of new compounds, while Prof.Košmrlj’s (University Ljubljana) and Dr. Kirin’s (Ruđer Bošković Institute) groups are focused on synthesis and chemical characterisations of novel compounds. Dr. Piantanida’s group is focused on examination of binding capacity of compounds to nucleic acids and proteins.

The expected result of this project is a compound or a group of new compounds with high antitumor capacity, decreased side effect and decreased development of resistance.