Benjamin W. J. Harper

Advances in Platinum Chemotherapeutics

The approved platinum(II)-based anticancer agents cisplatin, carboplatin and oxaliplatin are widely utilised in the clinic, although with numerous disadvantages. With the aim of circumventing unwanted side-effects, a great deal of research is being conducted in the areas of cancer-specific targeting, drug administration and drug delivery. The targeting of platinum complexes to cancerous tissues can be achieved by the attachment of small molecules with biological significance. In addition, the administration of platinum complexes in the form of platinum(IV) allows for intracellular reduction to release the active form of the drug, cisplatin. Drug delivery includes such technologies as liposomes, dendrimers, polymers and nanotubes, with all showing promise for the delivery of platinum compounds. In this paper we highlight some of the recent advances in the field of platinum chemotherapeutics, with a focus on the technologies that attempt to utilise the cytotoxic nature of cisplatin, whilst improving drug targeting to reduce side-effects.

Transition Metal Based Anticancer Drugs

With an ageing baby-boomer population in the Western World, cancer is becoming a significant cause of death. The prevalence of cancer and all associated costs, both in human and financial terms, drives the search for new therapeutic drugs and treatments. Platinum anticancer agents, such as cisplatin have been highly successful but there are several disadvantages associated with their use. What is need are new compounds with different mechanisms of action and resistance profiles. What needs to be recognised is that there are many other metal in the periodic table with therapeutic potential. Here we have highlighted metal complexes with activity and have illustrate the different approaches to the design of anticancer complexes.

The effects of 56MESS on mitochondrial and cytoskeletal proteins and the cell cycle in MDCK cells

BACKGROUND 56MESS has been shown to be cytotoxic but the mode of this action is unclear. In order to probe the mechanism of action for 56MESS, MDCK cells were utilised to investigate the effect on treated cells. RESULTS IC50 values for 56MESS and cisplatin in the MDCK cell line, determined by a SRB assay, were 0.25 ± 0.03 and 18 ± 1.2 μM respectively. In a preliminary study, cells treated with 56MESS displayed no caspase-3/7 activity, suggesting that the mechanism of action is caspase independent. Protein expression studies revealed an increase the expression in the MTC02 protein associated with mitochondria in cells treated with 56MESS and cisplatin. Non-synchronised 56MESS-treated cells caused an arrest in the G2/M phase of the cell cycle, in comparison to the S phase arrest of cisplatin. In G0/G1 synchronised cells, both 56MESS and cisplatin both appeared to arrest within the S phase. CONCLUSIONS these results suggest that 56MESS is capable of causing cell-cycle arrest, and that mitochondrial and cell cycle proteins may be involved in the mode of action of cytotoxicity of 56MESS.

Quadruplex DNA-Stabilising Dinuclear Platinum(II) Terpyridine Complexes with Flexible Linkers.

Four dinuclear terpyridineplatinum(II) (Pt-terpy) complexes were investigated for interactions with G-quadruplex DNA (QDNA) and duplex DNA (dsDNA) by synchrotron radiation circular dichroism (SRCD), fluorescent intercalator displacement (FID) assays and fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) melting studies. Additionally, computational docking studies were undertaken to provide insight into potential binding modes for these complexes. The complexes demonstrated the ability to increase the melting temperature of various QDNA motifs by up to 17 °C and maintain this in up to a 600-fold excess of dsDNA. This study demonstrates that dinuclear Pt-terpy complexes stabilise QDNA and have a high degree of selectivity for QDNA over dsDNA.

Probing the Interactions of Cytotoxic [Pt(1S,2S-DACH)(5,6-dimethyl-1,10-phenanthroline)] and Its PtIV Derivatives with Human Serum

The discrepancy between the in vitro cytotoxic results and the in vivo performance of Pt56MeSS prompted us to look into its interactions and those of its PtIV derivatives with human serum (HS), human serum albumin (HSA), lipoproteins, and serum‐supplemented cell culture media. The PtII complex, Pt56MeSS, binds noncovalently and reversibly to slow‐tumbling proteins in HS and in cell culture media and interacts through the phenanthroline group with HSA, with a Kd value of ∼1.5×10−6 m. All PtIV complexes were found to be stable toward reduction in HS, but those with axial carboxylate ligands, cct‐[Pt(1S,2S‐DACH)(5,6‐dimethyl‐1,10‐phenantroline)(acetato)2](TFA)2 (Pt56MeSS(OAc)2) and cct‐[Pt(1S,2S‐DACH)(5,6‐dimehtyl‐1,10‐phenantroline)(phenylbutyrato)2](TFA)2 (Pt56MeSS(PhB)2), were spontaneously reduced at pH 7 or higher in phosphate buffer, but not in Tris buffer (pH 8). HS also decreased the rate of reduction by ascorbate of the PtIV complexes relative to the reduction rates in phosphate buffer, suggesting that for this compound class, phosphate buffer is not a good model for HS.

CHAPTER 9:Biomolecular Interactions of Platinum Complexes

Deoxyribonucleic acid is generally accepted as the primary biomolecular target of the first platinum-based chemotherapeutic agent, cisplatin, which was documented in 1845, characterised in 1893 and its potential discovered in 1965. Initial attempts to understand the structural significance of the compound by combinatorial means saw early conceptions of structure–activity relationships that were soon challenged. Almost 50 years and thousands of complexes later, DNA still remains the primary target in a variety of interactions ranging from differences in base-pair preference, irreversible covalent binding, and reversible minor/major groove binding and intercalation. Developmental efforts have seen active cytotoxic platinum complexes with structures derived beyond initial assumptions through a diversity of ligand substitution and multinuclear linkages. Nonetheless nephrotoxicity and neurotoxicity pose as dire inherent side-effects in clinical trials and application of platinum therapeutics. Subsequent development has called for means to avoid diminished efficacy due to inactivation by endogenous glutathione and other complex-binding or chelating proteins. Platinum(IV) derivatives may solve issues of unintended toxicity by means of intrinsic extracellular stability, degrading to their active platinum(II) forms once internalised within a cytosol and in acidic tumour environments. Selectivity may also be gained by the axial/apical coordination of ligands that typically bind to receptors that are overexpressed in certain tumours, such as modified-estrogen ligands. The development of platinum complexes has required an in-depth understanding of their DNA-binding interactions in order to facilitate further structural modification without loss of effective function for their eventual application as chemotherapeutics. Although platinum complexes are the focus of this chapter, some other metal complexes that interact with nucleic acids, such as ruthenium, iridium, osmium, iron, copper, titanium, vanadium gold and silver, are discussed.

Platinum(II) Intercalating Complexes Based on 2,2′:6′,2″-Terpyridine

New complexes with similar structures to cisplatin very rarely offer any significant benefits to those analogues already in clinical use [1]. This has caused considerable interest in other platinum complexes, particularly metallointercalators as it is believed these complexes could display a different spectrum of anticancer activity due to their different mode of binding [2].

Applications of Fluorescence Spectroscopy and Confocal Microscopy

In this chapter we describe the use of fluorescence spectroscopy and confocal microscopy to investigate the DNA binding capacity, uptake route and intracellular localisation of novel metallointercalators. Fluorescence is the property whereby some atoms or molecules absorb UV or visible light and then re-emit it at longer wavelengths after a brief interval, termed the fluorescence lifetime.