The Antitumor Activity of Transition and Main-Group Metal Cyclopentadienyl Complexes. In: Baulieu E, Forman DT, Ingelman-sundberg M, Jaenicke L, Kellen JA, Nagai Y, Springer GF, Träger L, Will-shahab L, Wittliff JL, editors. Ruthenium and Other Non-Platinum Metal Complexes in Cancer Chemotherapy. Berlin: Springer Berlin Heidelberg; 1989. pp. 151-84. [DOI: 10.1007/978-3-642-74760-1_7]

Electrochemical biosensor evaluation of the interaction between DNA and metallo-drugs

Electrochemical techniques were used to study the interaction between a panel of antiproliferative metallo-drugs and double-stranded DNA immobilized on screen-printed electrodes as a model of the analogous interaction occurring in solution. The propensity of a given metal drug to interact with DNA was measured as a function of the decrease of guanine oxidation signal, which was detected by square wave voltammetry. Estimates of variations in experimental parameters, such as the concentration of complexes, time following dissolution (ageing time) and the presence of chloride, are provided.

Application of high-performance liquid chromatography for recognition of covalent nucleic acid modification with anticancer drugs

Covalent modification of DNA by antineoplastic agents represents a potent biochemical lesion which can play a major role in drug mechanism of action. The ability to measure levels of DNA covalent modifications in target cells in vivo may, therefore, be seen as the ultimate form of therapeutic drug monitoring. Additionally, elucidation of the structure of critical DNA adducts and definition of their role in tumour cell cytotoxicity will provide more selective targets for rational drug design of new cancer chemotherapeutic agents. High-performance liquid chromatography has contributed significantly to all these areas. In vivo levels of nucleic acid covalent modifications are in the range of 1 in 10(5)-10(8) nucleotides precluding the use of conventional high-performance liquid chromatographic detection methods. Several classes of natural product anticancer drugs have been shown to bond covalently to nucleic acids under optimal laboratory conditions. These have proved more accessible to high-performance liquid chromatographic analysis because of their lipophilicity and strong UV chromophores. However, the majority of experimental evidence to date suggests that with the exception of mitomycin C and morpholino-anthracyclines these compounds do not exert their primary mechanism of action through nucleic acid covalent modification. DNA adducts of alkylating and platinating agents are more difficult to detect by high-performance liquid chromatography and can be chemically unstable. These compounds interact with DNA on the basis of chemical kinetics. Thus, the principle sites of attachment tend to be with the most nucleophilic base (guanine) at its most reactive centre (N-7 position). Limited in vivo high-performance liquid chromatographic studies with all classes of anticancer drugs indicate a much more complex pattern of adductation than would have been anticipated from in vitro studies alone. Some of these differences are probably due to methodological artefacts but these studies stress the need for sensitive detection methods and reliable sample preparation (nucleic acid extraction and digestion techniques) when attempting to determine nucleic acid covalent modifications by anticancer drugs.

Antitumor activity of ionic niobocene and molybdenocene complexes in high oxidation states

Four air-stable niobocene complexes [(C5H5)2NbCl2]+X- with X = BF4, AsF6, SbF6, SO3CF3 and the molybdenocene derivative [(C5H5)2MoCl2]2+[SbF6]2- were investigated for antitumor properties against Ehrlich ascites tumor in female CF1 mice. All compounds are new, salt-like complexes containing a cationic metallocene moiety, where the early transition metals niobium and molybdenum in the high oxidation states +5 and +6 function as central atoms. The niobocene complexes containing tetrafluoroborate (BF4-) or trifluoromethanesulfonate (CF3SO3-) as anions only induced a maximal cure rate of 50% and led to increases in life span of 182% and 178% following application of optimal doses. The other two niobocene compounds with hexafluoroarsenate (AsF6-) and hexafluoroantimonate (SbF6-) as anions and the molybdenocene derivative [(C5H5)2MoCl2]2+[SbF6]2- effected a maximal cure rate of 100% and increases in life span of 346%, 376%, and 332%, respectively, determined on the key date, i.e., on day 90 after transplantation. On applying the niobocene hexafluoroantimonate complex [(C5H5)2NbCl2] +[SbF6]-, the optimal dose range with a cure rate of 100% was rather broad and extended from 20 mg/kg to 40 mg/kg. Correspondingly, the value of the therapeutic index (TI) was high and amounted to 7.2. In the case of the niobocene hexafluoroarsenate and the molybdenocene hexafluoroantimonate complexes, the TI value decreased to 5.3 and 2.6 respectively. Neither impairments of the general condition nor any conspicuous symptoms could be detected after application of therapeutic doses of the five compounds investigated. Compared to the neutral niobocene dichloro complex [(C5H5)2NbCl2], the therapeutic range of the ionic niobocene derivative [(C5H5)2NbCl2]+[SbF6]- was broadened, the TI value markedly elevated from 2.9 to 7.2, and the toxic symptoms were impressively reduced. The niobocene hexafluoroantimonate complex was the most effective compound investigated in the present study.

Electron-spectroscopic imaging--a method for analysing the distribution of light elements in mammalian cells and tissues

Electron-spectroscopic imaging (ESI) represents a method which is based on electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS) and renders possible to image the spatial distribution of light and medium-weight elements, i.e. especially of biologically relevant elements. In the present study, the validity of the method for biological problems was investigated by analysing the time-dependent, subcellular distribution of titanium following treatment with the cytostatically active compound titanocene dichloride in the liver, which is known to be the organ where titanium mainly accumulates following therapy with titanocene dichloride, and in 3 xenografted human tumours which are known to be sensitive to the antitumour action of titanocene dichloride. In all cases, it was shown that titanium primarily accumulates in the nuclei of hepatocytes and tumour cells and that it is thereafter incorporated into cytoplasmic lysosomes. Interestingly, phosphorus is always enriched together with titanium. These results give remarkable hints to the cellular mode of action of titanocene dichloride and, moreover, qualify the ESI technique to be a valuable method for investigating the subcellular distribution of endogenously present or exogenously light and medium-weight element.