Heavy Metals as Useful Drugs

A brief overview of the key role for heavy-metal compounds in medicine is given, with a special focus on platinum compounds used in treatment of cancer. Molecular aspects of the mechanism of action are presented in more detail

DNA cleavage and antitumour activity of platinum(II) and copper(II) compounds derived from 4-methyl-2-N-(2-pyridylmethyl)aminophenol: spectroscopic, electrochemical and biological investigation

The reaction of the redox-active ligand, Hpyramol (4-methyl-2-N-(2-pyridylmethyl)aminophenol) with K2PtCl4 yields monofunctional square-planar [Pt(pyrimol)Cl], PtL-Cl, which was structurally characterised by single-crystal X-ray diffraction and NMR spectroscopy. This compound unexpectedly cleaves supercoiled double-stranded DNA stoichiometrically and oxidatively, in a non-specific manner without any external reductant added, under physiological conditions. Spectro-electrochemical investigations of PtL-Cl were carried out in comparison with the analogue CuL-Cl as a reference compound. The results support a phenolate oxidation, generating a phenoxyl radical responsible for the ligand-based DNA cleavage property of the title compounds. Time-dependent in vitro cytotoxicity assays were performed with both PtL-Cl and CuL-Cl in various cancer cell lines. The compound CuL-Cl overcomes cisplatin-resistance in ovarian carcinoma and mouse leukaemia cell lines, with additional activity in some other cells. The platinum analogue, PtL-Cl also inhibits cell-proliferation selectively. Additionally, cellular-uptake studies performed for both compounds in ovarian carcinoma cell lines showed that significant amounts of Pt and Cu were accumulated in the A2780 and A2780R cancer cells. The conformational and structural changes induced by PtL-Cl and CuL-Cl on calf thymus DNA and phi X174 supercoiled phage DNA at ambient conditions were followed by electrophoretic mobility assay and circular dichroism spectroscopy. The compounds induce extensive DNA degradation and unwinding, along with formation of a monoadduct at the DNA minor groove. Thus, hybrid effects of metal-centre variation, multiple DNA-binding modes and ligand-based redox activity towards cancer cell-growth inhibition have been demonstrated. Finally, reactions of PtL-Cl with DNA model bases (9-Ethylguanine and 5'-GMP) followed by NMR and MS showed slow binding at Guanine-N7 and for the double stranded self complimentary oligonucleotide d(GTCGAC)(2) in the minor groove

Metal-ligand bond lengths and strengths: are they correlated? A detailed CSD analysis

Structure data on metal-alkoxides, metal-alcohol, metal-carboxylates, metal-carboxylic acid, metal-azolate and metal-azole coordination compounds from the Cambridge Structural Database (CSD) were analysed in terms of bond lengths. In general the anionic ligands form shorter metal-ligand bonds by about 0.02-0.05 angstrom compared to neutral ligands, a clear indication of a charge contribution to the bonding interactions. This small difference is not, however, deemed as sufficient to generate two distinct classes of metal-ligand bonding. Instead, the anionic ligands can be viewed as having "charge assisted" metal-ligand bonding, corresponding to the same term used for "charge-assisted hydrogen bonding"

Interaction between the DNA model base 9-ethylguanine and a group of ruthenium polypyridyl complexes: Kinetics and conformational temperature dependence

The binding capability of three ruthenium polypyridyl compounds of structural formula [Ru(apy)(tpy)Ln-](ClO4)((2-n)) [1a-c; apy = 2,2'-azobis(pyridine), tpy = 2,2':6',2 ''-terpyridine, L = Cl, H2O, CH3CN] to a fragment of DNA was studied. The interaction between each of these complexes and the DNA model base 9-ethylguanine (9-EtGua) was followed by means of H-1 NMR studies. Density functional theory calculations were carried out to explore the preferential ways of coordination between the ruthenium complexes and guanine. The ruthenium-9-EtGua adduct formed was isolated and fully characterized using different techniques. A variable-temperature H-1 NMR experiment was carried out that showed that while the 9-EtGua fragment was rotating fast at high temperature, a loss of symmetry was suffered by the model base adduct as the temperature was lowered, indicating restricted rotation of the guanine residue

Row 7 of the periodic table complete: Can we expect more new elements; and if so, when?

In this perspective the impact of the completion of the 7th row up to Z = 118, by the addition of four new elements in the periodic table - nihonium, moscovium, tennessine and oganesson - is described. Also the methods of how to "synthesize" new chemical elements, and the methods and difficulties of verifying such new elements are briefly discussed. Some speculations are presented about possible new element discoveries in the coming years.Finally, the pathway of how the IUPAC names of the new elements are determined, are presented and illustrated by the most recent 4 additions of new elements. (C) 2017 The Author. Published by Elsevier Ltd.Metals in Catalysis, Biomimetics & Inorganic Material