Metal complex-based liposomes as promising delivery platforms for cancer treatment

Cancer is a leading cause of death worldwide (Gyanani V. et al, 10.3390/ph14090835). The effectiveness of conventional anticancer treatments, including chemotherapy, radiotherapy and surgery, is often limited by the non-specific distribution of drugs, by their rapid metabolization/excretion and by drug-resistance phenomena. In recent decades, numerous studies aimed at improving the therapeutic approaches in oncology field have been carried out. Many of these are centered on the use of nanotechnologies, including liposomal systems. Such systems have the potential to improve the therapeutic index of a drug, increase its bioavailability, protect it from degradation and allow its controlled release. Compared to other nanotechnologies, conventional liposomes have several advantages: good biocompatibility, easy preparation, and excellent different nature drug loading capacity (Bozzuto G. et al., 10.2147/IJN.S68861). Due to lack of targeting ability, conventional unmodified liposomes are unable to deliver drugs to tumor tissues specifically. In this research project, liposome functionalized with metal complex in order to enhance their stability and controlled release have been studied. The most famous metal complex used in the cancer therapy is the platinum compound cisplatin, but its use is limited by dose-dependent toxicity and by the drug-resistance phenomena. In this frame, there is urgent need to develop new metal-drug that act with different mechanisms of action. Anticancer copper-compounds are excellent candidates to substitute platinum-based chemotherapeutics on the basis of the hypothesis that endogenous metals may be less toxic. The main goal of this study is to synthesize, characterize and evaluate the cellular uptake of copper-based complexes and their conjugation with liposomes, as anticancer high-performance tools useful for the development of new methods, possibly less toxic than conventional ones, of cancer treatment.