Targeted Cancer Chemotherapy: The Potential of L-Nucleoside Prodrugs

Funded Activity Summary

The aim of this project to develop novel anti-cancer agents. We plan to use an unusual sugar (an L-nucleoside) that is not normally found in the body. This unusual sugar has the property of being taken up by tumour cells but not normal cells. We will use this unusual sugar to transport a toxic compound inside tumour cells so that the tumour cells are killed. In this way, we will preferentially kill tumour cells but leave normal cells unaffected. Hence we will produce an anti-cancer agent that is highly effective at killing tumour cells but has few side-effects because it does not enter normal cells. Experimentally we will synthesise compounds where the L-nucleoside is attached to a toxic agent, fluorouridine or cisplatin analogues. We will then assess the ability of these novel compounds to kill tumour cells grown in the laboratory as well as tumours growing in mice. Additionally we will attempt to determine the mechanism of action of these drugs by investigating the following: the transport properties of the drugs; how and where these drugs damage DNA; the effect of the gene, p53, which can act to stop tumour growth. The ultimate aim of this project is to develop a novel class of anti-tumour agent based on L-nucleosides. These L-nucleoside analogues are expected to be more efficient at killing tumour cells but have fewer side effects.

Funded Activity Details

Start Date: 01-01-2003

End Date: 01-01-2005

Funding Scheme: NHMRC Project Grants

Funding Amount: $204,750.00

Funder: National Health and Medical Research Council

Research Topics

ANZSRC Field of Research (FoR)

Medical biochemistry - carbohydrates

ANZSRC Socio-Economic Objective (SEO)

There are no SEO codes available for this funding activity

Other Keywords

5-fluoro-2'deoxyuridine | DNA damage | L-nucleoside | anti-tumour agents | anticancer drug action | cancer chemotherapy | cisplatin | drug design | purine nucleoside transport

Related Links