Dr Wheate's research interests are primarily into pharmaceutically related fields: platinum-based cancer drugs, and drug delivery and formulation.

Platinum drugs for the treatment of cancer

Cisplatin was the first platinum drug approved for human use, and since its discovery, platinum-based drugs are listed in more than 50% of all chemotherapy regimens. In his work, Dr Wheate examines the DNA binding of platinum drugs, as well the design and synthesis of new drugs. Recently, he has been exploring new drug designs that incorporate the structural features of picoplatin and triplatininto a single drug.

Drug delivery for cancer

Many cancer drugs can be improved by better targeting them to solid cancers. To this effect, Dr Wheate has examined a range of delivery scaffolds for platinum drugs including: dendrimers, gold and iron oxide nanoparticles, aptamers and macrocycles, including cyclodextrins and calixarenes.

Cucurbiturils

One particular drug delivery scaffold of interest to Dr Wheate is the family of macrocycles called cucurbiturils. Dr Wheate was the first to show their application as delivery vehicles and has since shown how they can be used to improve drug solubility, drug stability in the solid and solution states, overcome drug resistance, their safety and their use in biodiagnostics. He is also the leading expert in the pharmaceutical formulation of cucurbiturils having designed oral tablet, eye and topical cream dosage forms.

Rhodes, S., Booth, J., Palmer, L., Blythe, R., Delibegovic, M., Wheate, N. (2016). Executive functions predict conceptual learning of science. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 34(2), 261-275. [More Information] Gomez-Roman, N., McGregor, F., Wheate, N., Plumb, J. (2015). Cucurbit [7] uril encapsulated cisplatin overcomes resistance to cisplatin induced by Rab25 overexpression in an intraperitoneal ovarian cancer model. Journal of Ovarian Research, 8(1), 1-10. [More Information] Apps, M., Choi, E., Wheate, N. (2015). The state-of-play and future of platin drugs. Endocrine-Related Cancer, 22(4), 219-233. [More Information] Oun, R., Plumb, J., Wheate, N. (2014). A cisplatin slow-release hydrogel drug delivery system based on a formulation of the macrocycle cucurbit[7]uril, gelatin and polyvinyl alcohol. Journal of Inorganic Biochemistry, 134, 100-105. [More Information] Apps, M., Johnson, B., Sutcliffe, O., Brown, S., Wheate, N. (2014). Amide Coupling Reaction for the Synthesis of Bispyridine-based Ligands and Their Complexation to Platinum as Dinuclear Anticancer Agents. Journal of Visualized Experiments, 87(87), 1-7. [More Information] Apps, M., Ammit, A., Gu, A., Wheate, N. (2014). Analysis of montmorillonite clay as a vehicle in platinum anticancer drug delivery. Inorganica Chimica Acta, 421, 513-518. [More Information] Chu, J., Apps, M., Wheate, N. (2014). Chemical factors affecting cucurbit[n]uril formulation into ocular dosage forms: excipient binding, solubility, corneal permeability and antibiotic encapsulation. Supramolecular Chemistry, 26(9), 648-656. [More Information] Rhodes, S., Booth, J., Campbell, L., Blythe, R., Wheate, N., Delibegovic, M. (2014). Evidence for a Role of Executive Functions in Learning Biology. Infant and Child Development (Online), 23(1), 67-83. [More Information] Oun, R., Floriano, R., Isaacs, L., Rowan, E., Wheate, N. (2014). The ex vivo neurotoxic, myotoxic and cardiotoxic activity of cucurbituril-based macrocyclic drug delivery vehicles. Toxicology Research, 3(6), 447-455. [More Information] Seif, M., Impelido, M., Apps, M., Wheate, N. (2014). Topical Cream-Based Dosage Forms of the Macrocyclic Drug Delivery Vehicle Cucurbit[6]uril. PloS One, 9(1), 1-8. [More Information] McGinely, N., Plumb, J., Wheate, N. (2013). DNA-based aptamer fails as a simultaneous cancer targeting agent and drug delivery vehicle for a phenanthroline-based platinum(II) complex. Journal of Inorganic Biochemistry, 128, 124-130. [More Information] Wagstaff, A., Brown, S., Holden, M., Craig, G., Plumb, J., Brown, R., Schreiter, N., Chrzanowski, W., Wheate, N. (2012). Cisplatin drug delivery using gold-coated iron oxide nanoparticles for enhanced tumour targeting with external magnetic fields. Inorganica Chimica Acta, 393, 328-333. [More Information] Craig, G., Brown, S., Lamprou, D., Graham, D., Wheate, N. (2012). Cisplatin-tethered gold nanoparticles that exhibit enhanced reproducibility, drug loading, and stability: a step closer to pharmaceutical approval? Inorganic Chemistry, 51(6), 3490-3497. [More Information] Brown, S., Trotter, K., Sutcliffe, O., Plumb, J., Waddell, B., Briggs, N., Wheate, N. (2012). Combining aspects of the platinum anticancer drugs picoplatin and BBR3464 to synthesize a new family of sterically hindered dinuclear complexes; their synthesis, binding kinetics and cytotoxicity. Dalton Transactions: an international journal of inorganic, organometallic and bioinorganic chemistry, 41(37), 11330-11339. [More Information] Plumb, J., Venugopal, B., Oun, R., Gomez-Roman, N., Kawazoe, Y., Venkataramanan, N., Wheate, N. (2012). Cucurbit[7]uril encapsulated cisplatin overcomes cisplatin resistance via a pharmacokinetic effect. Metallomics, 4(6), 561-567. [More Information] Brown, S., Plumb, J., Johnston, B., Wheate, N. (2012). Folding of dinuclear platinum anticancer complexes within the cavity of para-sulphonatocalix[4]arene. Inorganica Chimica Acta, 393, 182-186. [More Information] Upadhyay, D., Scalia, S., Vogel, R., Wheate, N., Salama, R., Young, P., Traini, D., Chrzanowski, W. (2012). Magnetised Thermo Responsive Lipid Vehicles for Targeted and Controlled Lung Drug Delivery. Pharmaceutical Research, 29(9), 2456-2467. [More Information] Wheate, N. (2012). Nanoparticles: the future for platinum drugs or a research red herring? Nanomedicine, 7(9), 1285-1287. [More Information] Alniss, H., Anthony, N., Khalaf, A., Mackay, S., Suckling, C., Waigh, R., Wheate, N., Parkinson, J. (2012). Rationalising sequence selection by ligand assemblies in the DNA minor groove; The case for thiazotropsin A. Chemical Science, 3, 711-722. [More Information] Walker, S., Oun, R., McInnes, F., Wheate, N. (2011). The Potential of Cucurbit[n]urils in Drug Delivery. Israel Journal Of Chemistry, 51(5-6), 616-624. [More Information]