The low efficiency of therapies and adverse side effects reducing the effectiveness of drug activity and lowering the quality of life of patients are still the biggest challenges faced by the pharmaceutical industry, which searches for new active substances for combating cancers.
An interesting example of such compounds is cytostatic drugs. They are characterised, however, by low selectivity. This means that they are capable of destroying not only the cancer cells, but also the healthy ones, which results e.g. in occurrence of the above-mentioned adverse effects. Moreover, certain cancers prove resilient to these substances, which in turn reduces the possibility of their application.
Due to this, scientists have developed new derivatives with embedded naphthalene ring, intended for manufacturing anti-cancer agents, which would be characterised by high selectivity in relation to proper cells. The patented compounds may be used as active substances, particularly in the drugs that are effective in colorectal cancer therapy, especially cancers with TP53 gene mutation.
The authors of this solution are scientists associated with the University of Silesia in Katowice: Assoc. Prof. Anna Mrozek-Wilczkiewicz, Professor of the University of Silesia, Dr Katarzyna Painter, Prof. Robert Must, Ewelina Spaczyńska, MSc, Klaudia Krzykała, MSc, as well as Prof. Josef Jampilek from the Comenius University in Bratislava.
