UP Inorganic Chemists Patent Two New Groups of Drugs with High Anti-Tumour Effectiveness

Scientists from the Department of Inorganic Chemistry at the UP Faculty of Science have developed new anti-tumour drug compounds on the basis of platinum complexes, which are more effective than commonly used drugs from this group used in chemotherapy today, have fewer unwanted side effects, and show high activity even against cancer cells which are resistant to treatment by the clinically used drug cisplatin. Their efforts have recently culminated in being granted Czech national patents (CZ 305374 and CZ 305411) for two groups of platinum-based complexes.

“The first group is represented by platinum diiodide-complexes containing 7-azaindole derivatives. These substances are broad spectrum drugs, effective on various types of tumours, especially breast carcinomas, osteosarcoma, and malign melanoma, as well as ovarian, prostate, lung, and cervical carcinomas. Their anti-tumour activity is up to ten-times higher as compared with cisplatin, the most commonly used platinum-based drug for chemotherapy,” said the head of the research team, Zdeněk Trávníček. The co-authors of the patents are Zdeněk Dvořák, Radka Křikavová, and Pavel Štarha.

The second group of compounds with a significant anti-tumour effect consists of platinum dichloride complexes with kinetin (a plant hormone) derivatives, which showed high effectiveness especially against cells of malignant melanoma and ovarian carcinoma. The newly granted patents are thematically connected to a recently granted European patent that addressed a similar problem, but with compounds of different composition.

In the past six years, Palacký University has obtained eleven national patents and one European patent thanks to the research activities of the team around Prof Trávníček. These patents provide legal protection for prospective use of the biologically active complex compounds such as drugs used in the treatment of serious diseases, such as various types of cancer and inflammatory diseases.

“These granted patents are firstly a confirmation of the high application potential of the results from basic research conducted in the collaboration between the Department of Inorganic Chemistry, the Department of Cell Biology and Genetics, and the division of Biologically-Active Complexes and Molecular Magnets at the Regional Centre of Advanced Technologies and Materials in Olomouc; and secondly, they also contribute to the strong position of the UP Faculty of Science in applied research,” said Prof Trávníček. The dominant status of the Faculty of Science in Olomouc among scientific institutions focussing on applied research in the field of chemistry was also confirmed by the Analysis of Current Research, Development and Innovation in the Czech Republic and Their International Comparison in the Year 2014. This document, evaluating the situation in Czech science in the years 2010–14, was used during negotiations with the Czech government. The researchers led by Prof Trávníček contributed with almost 20 percent of the total results (8 out of 43) in the category of patents, and with more than 50 percent (8 out of 15) in the category of utility models from all included results achieved by the Faculty of Science at Palacký University in the given period.

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