Medicinal Inorganic Chemistry

Publisher Summary Biomedical inorganic chemistry “Elemental Medicine” is an important new area of chemistry. Platinum complexes are now among the most widely used drugs for the treatment of cancer. Three injectable Pt(II) compounds have been approved and several other cis -diam(m)ine complexes are on clinical trials, including an oral Pt(IV) complex. Microbial resistance to established organic antibiotics is a potentially serious problem and provides an impetus for the development of novel antimicrobial metal compounds. With appropriate choice of ligands, it is possible to change the mode of Pt binding to DNA and to circumvent acquired resistance of cancer cells to cisplatin; a trinuclear Pt complex with two monofunctional Pt centers has recently been found to exhibit an intriguing new mode of DNA binding and has entered clinical trials. There is potential in the anti-HIV field. Polyoxometallates of the Keggin type bind to viral envelope sites on cell surfaces and interfere with virus adsorption.