New anti-leukemic drugs - advanced preclinical research

Neoplastic diseases constitute an important, still unsolved problem of clinical medicine and pharmacology of the 21st century. Therefore, intensive research is carried out into the development of new anti-cancer drugs that specifically destroy cancer cells, without causing negative side effects and with improved pharmacokinetic parameters. Interesting cytotoxic properties of several compounds from the group of benzo [b] furans and dicarboximides designed and produced at the Department of Medical Chemistry of the Medical University of Warsaw have been discovered in the Screening Laboratory of Anticancer Compounds operating at the Department of Bioorganic Chemistry of the Center for Molecular and Macromolecular Research of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Łódź. These compounds turned out to be cytotoxic to CML (K562), ALL (MOLT-4) and AML (HL-60) leukemia cells, while they are non-toxic to normal endothelial cells (HUVEC) and tumor adherent cells (HeLa and CFPAC). These compounds and their antitumor activity have been protected by Polish and international patents (EP13150611.5-1452, EP13176421.9, P.398193, P.400000). Aim of the research: Conducting advanced preclinical studies for selected benzo [b] furan and dicarboximide derivatives as potential anti-leukemic compounds, including testing their activity against hematopoietic stem cells from AML and CML patients and in vivo in animal models and understanding the molecular mechanism of action of these compounds in cells.