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LINFA
originates from the experience cumulated in
the course of studies on the most important
pharmacological properties of a new ruthenium-based
antimetastasis drug.
LINFA
poses itself as a reference point for research
on the antimetastasis properties of new complexes
being identified within scientific institutions
for basic research on the subject.
LINFA
has the main goal of promoting studies on the
pharmacological treatment by means of ruthenium-based
drugs of metastases released by solid tumours.
Cancer is the second cause
of death in most western Countries. In the "developed"
world cancer concerns one individual out of
three within his/her lifespan and causes one
death out of five. Although cardio-vascular
diseases kill more people than cancer, and often
at an earlier age, cancer is all the same the
most awful plague of our time.
Nearly one half of all deceases
due to tumours occurring in the developed world
can be ascribed to stomach, lung, colon-rectum,
breast and cervix cancers. These five tumours,
together with those affecting the bladder, the
oesophagus, the prostate and the skin, kill
mainly because they produce metastases, and
therefore when they are diagnosed they are already
spread to a point that a a complete surgical
removal is unfeasible. As a matter of fact,
one of the main characteristics of malignant
tumours is that some cells can get detached
from the main mass and move freely around the
body until they settle in some other tissue
where they start the growth of a new tumour,
the metastasis.
Metastases of solid tumours
represent the main reason for the lack of success
of anti-cancer therapies. Actually whereas surgery
and/or radio-therapy may successfully treat
the primitive tumour lesion, many human tumours
develop remote metastases that, regardless for
the diagnosis at the beginning of treatment,
invariably lead patients to death. Because of
their wide distribution, the pharmacological
therapy seems to be the best choice for a successful
treatment. Presently in this kind of approach
the weak ring of the chain is represented by
the available drugs.
These drugs are characterised
by their capability of interacting with cell
proliferation and growth mechanism by cytotoxicity,
are poorly specific for tumour cells and their
toxicity limits the dose to be used, often because
of bone marrow impairment or of reduction of
immune responses. It is remarkable that all
presently available drugs were developed aiming
at inhibiting tumour growth in its primary site
rather than on systemic metastases. On the contrary,
studies of the last twenty years have shown
the peculiarities of solid tumour metastases
with respect to the primary tumour from which
they originated, with special reference to their
different sensitivity to anti-tumour cytotoxic
drugs.
Thus there is a particular
attention and a strong demand for drugs featuring
specific antimetastasis activity, as they represent
- among the rest - also a solution to the tolerance
problems that presently the chemotherapy poses
to the neoplastic patient.
The purpose of
LINFA is to build up a national
and international reference centre for the basic
study of chemical structures among which new
ruthenium-based antimetastasis drugs are to
be identified.
LINFA
is therefore a reference for several research
laboratories where the synthesis-aimed research
and the chemical characterisation of ruthenium
complexes are carried on, among which:
The Department of Chemical Sciences, University
of Trieste
(Prof. G. Mestroni)
The Department of Chemical Sciences, University
di Florence
(Dr. L. Messori)
The Chemistry Institute, University of
Leiden, Holland
(Prof. J. Reedijk)
The Department of Chemistry, University
of Edinborough, Scotland
(Prof. P. Sadler)
The Instutute of Inorganic Chemistry, University
of Vienna, Austria
(Prof. B. Keppler)
The Department of Chemistry, Royal College
of Surgeons, Dublin, Ireland
(Prof. K. Nolan)
The Merkert Chemistry Center, University
of Boston, USA
(Prof. M.J. Clarke)
The Department of Inorganic Chemistry,
University of Sevilla, Spain
(Prof. F. Gonzales-Vilchez)
"Within laboratories
for chemical synthesis are present new high-potentiality
structures that cannot find enough opportunities
of biological study for lack of adequate references
for the pharmacological evaluation. Therefore
LINFA
proposes itself to these structures in order
to allow and facilitate the study of anti-metastasis
potentialities of new products, by using models
aimed at studying the metastases of solid tumours."
Among LINFA's
goals there is also perfecting the pre-clinic
study models concerning new metal-based drugs
active on tumour metastases, by identifying
those which best allow to simulate - within
the ethical limits of the laboratory experimentation
- the situation of human metastases-originated
tumours.
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