Optimization of oncology therapy: novel drugs affecting multi drug resistance

FIRB - FUTURO IN RICERCA 2012

Agency: Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research

Duration: 36 months

Principal Investigator: Simona Saponara (Department of Life Sciences, University of Siena)

Research Units:

  • Department of Life Sciences, University of Siena
  • Department of Pharmacy, University of Bari
  • Department of Neurosciences, Psychology, Drug Research and Child Health, University of Florence
  • Department of Oncology, University of Turin

The limited efficacy of cancer chemotherapy is due to the extremely low therapeutic index of the drugs presently available and to the occurrence of "innate" or treatment-induced resistance of tumor cells to anticancer drugs. Multi-drug resistance (MDR), in fact, is a phenomenon by which tumor cells exhibit resistance to different chemically unrelated chemotherapeutic drugs. This project aims to identify and to characterize novel compounds