Bioinorganic Supramolecular Chemistry: A New Toolbox for Therapy and Imaging

The biomedical application of discrete supramolecular coordination complexes, specifically self-assembled 3D-metallacages, is an emergent field of study.[1] The robustness and modular composition of such supramolecular metal-based structures allows for the incorporation of different functionalities in the same scaffold to enable imaging in cells via different modalities, but also active tumor targeting and stimuli-responsiveness. Thus, metallacages may constitute ideal systems to develop multimodal theranostic agents. Of note, the host-guest chemistry of metallacages can also be exploited to design novel targeted drug delivery systems for anticancer chemotherapeutics and radioactive imaging agents.[2,3]
In this lecture, I aim at summarizing the pivotal concepts in this fascinating research area, starting with the main synthetic and design principles and illustrating representative examples from our group. Certainly, the myriad of possible metallacage-structures and their almost limitless modularity and tunability suggest that the biomedical applications of such complex chemical entities will continue along this already promising path.

References
[1] Casini, A.; Woods, B.; Wenzel, M., Inorg. Chem. 2017, 56, 14715.
[2] Han, J.; Rad̈er, A.F.B.; Reichart,F.; Aikman,§B.; Wenzel,M.N.; Woods, B.; Weinmüller, M.; Ludwig, S.B.; Stürup, S.; Groothuis, G.M.M.; Permentier, H.P.; Bischoff, R.; Kessler,K.; Horvatovich, P.; Casini, A., Bioconjug. Chem. 2018, 29, 3856-3865.
[3] Woods, B.; Silva R.D.M.; Schmidt, C.; Wragg, D.; Cavaco, M.; Neves, V.; Ferreira, V.F.C.; Gano, L.; Morais, T.S.; Mendes,F. Correia, J.D.G.; Casini, A., Bioconjug. Chem. 2021, 32, 1399-1408.