KFUPM research team obtained 4 patents after successful preparation of inorganic chemical compounds based on gold and platinum elements which have promising capabilities in fighting different types of cancers.
A research team from King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, Chemistry Department obtained 4 patents after successful preparation of inorganic chemical compounds based on gold and platinum elements which have promising capabilities in fighting different types of cancers.
The research team, led by Professor Anwar Aasab and includes Dr. Abdel Aziz al-Saadi, Dr. Mohammed Altaf, Dr. Said Jaroudi, Dr. Mohammed Wazeer of the King Fahd University with Dr. Saleh Al-Tuwaijri of Saad Hospital, prepare many of these compounds with different molecular and physical characteristics to be utilized in the future in the chemotherapy treatment for cancer patients to relieve the large degree of toxicity in the chemotherapy treatment and to reduce the proportion of damage caused to healthy cells and its side effects.
Dr. Aasab explained that the preparation of those materials have been done in the labs of Department of Chemistry, and tested to prove that they are promising compounds ready to move to processing stages of medical drugs including bio-pharmaceutical and toxicological tests.
Professor Aasab, a well-known scientist in the field of gold compounds and their chemo-biology applications, pointed that after conducting preliminary tests on these compounds, they were sent to research teams in Dammam University and Saad Hospital for further testing. He explained that IC50 tests were made in biology labs to measure toxic substances and their impact. The tests on these compounds proved that they have vital distinct characteristics and therefore granted patents based on these results.
Dr. Aasab mentioned that there are traditional platinum compounds currently approved in the treatment of cancer, but they cause many symptoms and side effects, because these compounds do not solely target the infected cells. Therefore, we changed the anatomy of the compound, and change the positioning of atoms interacting with gold or platinum to change the properties of these compounds and to enable it to target tumor cells and minimize the damage to healthy cells.
Drugs generally take a long period until it reaches the final product. The average period is about 15 years with investments of millions of dollars to reach the market.
Professor Aasab confirmed that the story of any medication begins from the chemistry labs, and takes years of process to reach the beneficiary, noting that the role of chemists is the main foundation. The role of chemists is to find new properties of materials by changing the compounds structures and forms, thus changing the chemical and physical properties of the material, and then they perform elementary tests of the new compound vital activity.
"We put scientific theory, proving the compound vital activity, and when we get indications of promising substance the chemist role ends here and the role of other researchers begin. Biology laboratories conduct tests on certain organisms, and toxin specialists also examine them". "The compound goes through many stages but they all based on the first one."
Change in molecular structure and atoms positions in compound greatly affect its characteristics and this process is very complex and requires high research capabilities and advanced equipment. In Chemistry department, we worked to find a lot of compounds, but the success rate does not exceed 10 per cent. He added.
Recently, the research activities of Chemistry Department have received significant support from the university and the great facilities provided to researchers enabled them to cooperate with different entities and use their facilities. As a result, a lot of products appeared and we started sending samples for analysis and found that many of the samples have promising capabilities for handling many types of cancers and have an impact on a wide broad of cancer cells.
He noted that the university has cooperated with a number of authorities that have incubators to test compounds such as the University of Dammam and Saad Hospital. This cooperation allows us to send samples to these authorities for testing on organisms.
Moreover, Professor Aasab said "I spent 35 years at the university, during which the university has given me a full opportunity to carry out research in line with my interests, and it provides the opportunity for all researchers to conduct their interest researches."
Head of Department of Chemistry, Dr. Abdel Aziz al-Saadi said that the research activity at the Department of Chemistry is increasing, pointing to the success of faculty members and researchers in the registration of 24 patents in the US Patent Office in the past two years. He said that Department of Chemistry researchers have achieved patents in different areas such as nanotechnology, water treatment, reduction of rust, and all this is due to the ability of faculty members in the Department of Chemistry of creating a broad spectrum of diverse materials with improved properties.
Dr. Saadi, a member in the research team led by Professor Aasab said, "the most important characteristic of research activity in the Department of Chemistry is the active contribution of graduate students in these patents. This was of great benefit to those students and gives them important experience through their participation. The university is rich in distinguished professors, students and experiences. The chemistry department has considerable support through which we can strengthen our footprint in the science of materials and their applications".
Dr. Saadi stressed the importance of coordination and cooperation with many parties to compensate for the lack of some important equipment, accelerate this type of research, enable publication of research in the most famous magazines and strengthen our position in the patent record.