QUANTIC SILVER ATOMIC CLUSTERS: BIOLOGICAL ACTION MECHANISMS AND THERAPEUTIC APPLICATIONS

Operation co-funded by EU cohesion policy (European Regional Development Fund (ERDF)) under the programme Multi-regional Spain - ERDF (2014ES16RFOP002), managing authority: Subdirección General de Gestión del FEDER, de la Dirección General de Fondos Europeos del Ministerio de Hacienda.. The source names no beneficiary for this operation. Location: A Coruña Province (NUTS ES111); Spain. Budget: total eligible expenditure EUR 84,700; EU co-financing EUR 67,760 (co-financing rate 80%), as stated by the source. Runs 2018-01-01 to 2021-09-30. Source: Kohesio, EU cohesion policy projects managed by national and regional authorities (not CORDIS); selected because its title uses a quantum word. Summary from Kohesio (English machine translation by the source): NANOTECHNOLOGY CONSTITUTES A TOOL WITH GREAT POTENTIAL TO OVERCOME SOME OF THE OBSTACLES FACED BY CONVENTIONAL THERAPIES. IN COLLABORATION WITH PROF. LOPEZ-QUINTELA (USC) WE HAVE STARTED IN RECENT YEARS A RESEARCH LINE TO CHARACTERIZE THE PROPERTIES OF A NEW NANOMATERIAL, ATOMIC QUANTUM CLUSTERS (AQCS), AS AN ANTITUMOR AGENT. AQCS OF METALS ARE SUB-NANOMETER CLUSTERS OF ATOMS THAT HAVE UNIQUE SIZE-DEPENDENT PROPERTIES DIFFERENT FROM THE BULK METAL. AQCS EXHIBIT CERTAIN DESIRABLE CHARACTERISTICS OF AN ANTITUMOR DRUG, SUCH AS GREAT STABILITY, SOLUBILITY IN WATER AND SMALL SIZE, WHICH TOGETHER WITH THEIR UNIQUE PHYSICO-CHEMICAL PROPERTIES, COULD BE TRANSLATED INTO A GOOD DISTRIBUTION THROUGH THE BLOOD AND EXCELLENT PENETRATION INTO TUMOR TISSUE. SINCE THE DISTRIBUTION OF CURRENT CANCER DRUGS IS COMPROMISED BY THEIR SHORT CIRCULATION HALF-LIFE AND BY THEIR POOR PENETRATION INTO TUMOR TISSUE, AQCS REPRESENT AN ATTRACTIVE COMPOUND FOR ITS EVALUATION AS A POTENTIAL ANTICANCER DRUG. IN THIS PROJECT WE AIM TO EXPLORE THE THERAPEUTIC POSSIBILITIES OF TWO TYPES OF SILVER AQCS (OF THREE OR FIVE ATOMS) AS ANTITUMOR AGENTS, BASED IN THEIR DIFFERENTIAL BIOLOGICAL PROPERTIES. WE HAVE PREVIOUSLY SHOWN THAT SILVER AQCS OF THREE ATOMS (AG3-AQCS) ARE ABLE TO INTERACT WITH DNA THROUGH INTERCALATION, INDUCING A SIGNIFICANT DISTORTION ON THE NUCLEIC ACID STRUCTURE WHICH RESULTS IN NUCLEOSOME DESTABILIZATION AND ENHANCED CHROMATIN ACCESSIBILITY. CO-ADMINISTRATION OF AG3-AQCS TOGETHER WITH DNA-BINDING DRUGS IMPROVES THE THERAPEUTIC INDEX OF THESE ANTI-TUMOR AGENTS AND ENHANCES THEIR EFFICACY. SINCE A MAJOR FACTOR IN THE FAILURE OF CHEMOTHERAPY IS THAT AN INSUFFICIENT AMOUNT OF DRUG MAY REACH THE DNA, HERE WE PROPOSE TO USE AG3-AQCS TO SENSITIZE CANCER CELLS TO CDDP AIMING TO IMPROVE THE RESPONSE IN CASES OF RESISTANCE WHERE THE AVAILABLE CONCENTRATION OF CDDP IS DIMINISHED. IN CONTRAST WITH THE BIOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF AG3-AQCS, WHICH DO NOT AFFECT CELL VIABILITY BY THEMSELVES, FIVE-ATOMS [shortened; the full text is on the Kohesio page]

Original source.

Source: Kohesio (EU cohesion policy projects), European Commission, Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy (DG REGIO). Retrieved 2026-10-21. Licence: CC0 1.0 (Cohesion Open Data Platform, dataset 2014-2020 Kohesio projects). Selected metadata, adapted presentation; the publisher's record is authoritative. No endorsement by the source is implied. Licence: public domain dedication (CC0 1.0).

AI-assisted summary: The project "QUANTIC SILVER ATOMIC CLUSTERS" focuses on researching atomic quantum clusters as potential antitumor agents, co-funded by the EU with a budget of EUR 84,700. It ran from January 1, 2018, to September 30, 2021, in A Coruña Province, Spain. Suggested technology pillar: enabling. Generated by AI from the public source text; it may contain errors and the original source is authoritative.