Synthesis of Anticancer Drug-Drug Co-crystals

Authors:

Raquel Trevizo,
Quinton Flores,
Ivan Arvizo,
Zhihan Wang

Institutions:

Eastern New Mexico University

Abstract:
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Categories:
Biology
Poster ID:
145783

Cancer has been known to be one of the leading causes of death in individuals worldwide. A variety of anticancer drugs have proven to be effective, yet present several limitations concerning bioavailability in vivo. Such limitations have been found to include poor permeability, low solubility, and high sensitivity to food intake. Several studies surrounding anticancer drug-drug co-crystals have focused on improving solubility among other deficiencies in order to facilitate drug administration in the body and improve target area impact. Through the application of intermolecular forces, several anticancer drugs have been combined with a co-former compound to produce anticancer drug-drug co-crystals. The anticancer drugs of interest in this study include abiraterone acetate, gefitinib, imatinib, ibrutinib, and dasatinib. The various co-formers that were applied are derived from natural products and are FDA-approved drugs which include caffeic acid, cinnamic acid, ferulic acid, coumaric acid, MHD (1-methylhydantoin), aspirin, and ibuprofen. The organic solvents used included ethanol, water, DMF (dimethylformamide), acetonitrile, ethyl acetate, isopropanol, methanol, and acetone. One method used for crystallization included grinding the compounds for 10 minutes prior to dissolution in the solvent. Heating was also applied as a method to aid in dissolving the solution by speeding up the reaction. The solutions were also stirred on a magnetic stir plate to further excite the molecules for improved bonding. Another dissolution method used was the sonication of samples. Through this experimentation, several crystal structures have been sampled and prepared for characterization. The crystals will be tested using nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy and single crystal x-ray diffraction. Improving the solubility and bioavailability of anticancer drugs will aid the development of novel anticancer drug-drug co-crystals and will further research in cancer studies and pharmaceutics.