Self-assembling drug-conjugates for anti-cancer targeting and treatment

Our continuous interest in the field of chemical approaches to target cancer cells moved us to study the preparation of a novel classes of conjugate compounds using anticancer drugs as building blocks. In previous efforts we used squalene tail as self-assembling inducer1 and a disulphide containing linker to secure the release of the drugs after cell internalization.2 Subsequently we demonstrated the possibility to generate hetero and fluorescent nanoparticles by mixing a paclitaxel-squalene conjugate and fluorescein-squalene conjugate.3 In the light of facing the high demanding issue of resistance4 we studied the formation of cyclopamine-paclitaxel containing nanoparticles and we had the way to detect the internalization by confocal microscopy and super-resolution.5 Our efforts are actually focused on: a) new combination of drugs to overcome drug resistance, b) new self-assembling inducers,6 c) new hetero-nanoparticles and d) new drug-conjugates deriving by modification of active natural products.