Is GSH Chelated Pt Molecule Inactive in Anti-Cancer Treatment? A Case Study of Pt6 GS4

Co-assembly of cisplatin and dasatinib in hyaluronan nanogel to combat triple negative breast cancer with reduced side effects

Treatment for triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) remains a huge challenge due to the lack of targeted therapeutics and tumor heterogenicity. Cisplatin (Cis) have demonstrated favorable therapeutic response in TNBC and thus is used together with various kinase inhibitors to fight the heterogenicity of TNBC. The combination of Cis with SRC inhibitor dasatinib (DAS) has shown encouraging anti-TNBC efficacy although the additive toxicity was commonly observed. To overcome the severe side effects of this Cis involved therapy, here we co-encapsulated Cis and DAS into a self-assembled hyaluronan (HA) nanogel (designated as HA/Cis/DAS (HCD) nanogel) to afford the TNBC targeted delivery by using the 4T1 mouse model. The acquired HCD nanogel was around 181 nm in aqueous solution, demonstrating the pharmacological activities of both Cis and DAS. Taking advantages of HA's targeting capability towards CD44 that is overexpressed on many TNBC cells, the HCD could well maintain the anticancer efficacy of the Cis and DAS combination, significantly increase the maximum tolerated dose and relieve the renal toxicity in vivo. The current HCD nanogel provides a potent strategy to improve the therapeutic outcome of Cis and DAS combination and thus representing a new targeted treatment option for TNBC.

Cytotoxic auranofin analogues bearing phosphine, arsine and stibine ligands: A study on the possible role of the ligand on the biological activity

Three gold(I) linear compounds, sharing the general formula [AuI(LPh3)], have been synthesized and characterized. The nature of the ligand has been modified by moving down among some of the elements of group 15, i.e. phosphorus, arsenic and antimony. The structures of derived compounds have been solved through XRD and the reactivity behaviour towards selected biomolecules has been investigated through a multi-technique approach involving NMR, high-resolution mass spectrometry and IR. Moreover, the biological activity of the investigated compounds has been comparatively analyzed through classical methodologies and the disclosed differences are discussed in detail.

Advances in Structure Pharmaceutics from Discovery to Evaluation and Design

Drug delivery systems (DDSs) play an important role in delivering active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) to targeted sites with a predesigned release pattern. The chemical and biological properties of APIs and excipients have been extensively studied for their contribution to DDS quality and effectiveness; however, the structural characteristics of DDSs have not been adequately explored. Structure pharmaceutics involves the study of the structure of DDSs, especially the three-dimensional (3D) structures, and its interaction with the physiological and pathological structure of organisms, possibly influencing their release kinetics and targeting abilities. A systematic overview of the structures of a variety of dosage forms, such as tablets, granules, pellets, microspheres, powders, and nanoparticles, is presented. Moreover, the influence of structures on the release and targeting capability of DDSs has also been discussed, especially the in vitro and in vivo release correlation and the structure-based organ- and tumor-targeting capabilities of particles with different structures. Additionally, an in-depth discussion is provided regarding the application of structural strategies in the DDSs design and evaluation. Furthermore, some of the most frequently used characterization techniques in structure pharmaceutics are briefly described along with their potential future applications.

Observation of the protein expression level via naked eye: Pt clusters catalyze non-color molecules into brown-colored molecules in cells

α _v β ₃ is overexpressed in various tumor cells and plays a key role in tumor genesis, invasion, and metastasis. Therefore, it is of great significance to precisely detect the α _v β ₃ level in cells via a simple method. For this purpose, we have constructed a peptide-coated platinum (Pt) cluster. Due to its bright fluorescence, well-defined Pt atom numbers, and peroxidase-like catalytic activity, this cluster can be used to evaluate α _v β ₃ levels in cells by fluorescence imaging, inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS), and catalytic amplification of visual dyes, respectively. In this report, the expression level of α _v β ₃ in living cells is well-detected by the naked eye under an ordinary light microscope when the Pt cluster binds to αvβ3 in cells and catalyzes non-color 3,3'-diaminobenzidine (DAB) into brown-colored molecules in situ. Moreover, SiHa, HeLa, and 16HBE cell lines with different α _v β ₃ expression levels can be visually distinguished by the peroxidase-like Pt clusters. This research will provide a reliable method for the simple detection of α _v β ₃ levels in cells.

Mechanistic Insights Into the Anticancer Properties of the Auranofin Analog Au(PEt3)I: A Theoretical and Experimental Study

Au(PEt₃)I (AF-I hereafter), the iodide analog of the FDA-approved drug auranofin (AF hereafter), is a promising anticancer agent that produces its pharmacological effects through interaction with non-genomic targets such as the thioredoxin reductase system. AF-I is endowed with a very favorable biochemical profile showing potent in vitro cytotoxic activity against several cancer types including ovarian and colorectal cancer. Remarkably, in a recent publication, some of us reported that AF-I induces an almost complete and rapid remission in an orthotopic in vivo mouse model of ovarian cancer. The cytotoxic potency does not bring about highly severe side effects, making AF-I very well-tolerated even for higher doses, even more so than the pharmacologically active ones. All these promising features led us to expand our studies on the mechanistic aspects underlying the antitumor activity of AF-I. We report here on an integrated experimental and theoretical study on the reactivity of AF-I, in comparison with auranofin, toward relevant aminoacidic residues or their molecular models. Results point out that the replacement of the thiosugar moiety with iodide significantly affects the overall reactivity toward the amino acid residues histidine, cysteine, methionine, and selenocysteine. Altogether, the obtained results contribute to shed light into the enhanced antitumoral activity of AF-I compared with AF.