Drug Targeting Mini-Symposium of the Division for Medicinal Chemistry (DMC) of the Swiss Chemical Society (SCS), at the Department of Chemistry, University of Basel, May 29, 2008: Conference Report

Specific targeting of drugs to their respective target organs or tissues is challenging. Substantial research efforts have been undertaken in the recent past to develop target specific drugs or drug conjugates. Such concepts are most relevant in rather severe diseases like cancer since it helps to reduce the concentration of frequently rather toxic drugs outside the tumor tissue. Various techniques can be used to specifically direct a drug or a drug conjugate to a specific tumor tissue such as using antibodies directed against tumor specific proteins, as nanoparticles or nano-sized polymer conjugates carrying tumor-specific recognition elements or by applying the active drug principle in a prodrug form designed to be liberated specifically in tumor tissue. Three speakers from the academia and one speaker from industry described different approaches and their respective potentials from various perspectives in the lectures entitled: 'Polymer Therapeutics and other Nanomedicines as Targetable Cancer Therapies', 'Design, Application, and Chemical Biology of Tumor-Targeting Drug Conjugates', 'Antibody-Based Vascular Tumor Targeting: From the Bench to the Clinic', and 'Discovery of Capecitabine, a Rationally Designed and Tumor-Activated Oral Prodrug of 5-FU, and Beyond'