Medicinal Inorganic Chemistry: An Introduction

Abstract

Metal ions in clinical use today include bismuth compounds, which have been in use for over a hundred years, lithium carbonate, which has been in use for over 50 years, and cisplatin, which was introduced almost 40 years ago. “Metals in medicine” also covers a wealth of newer diagnostic and therapeutic compounds, such as gadolinium‐based contrast agents for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), samarium‐based compounds for relief of bone pain in intractable cancer, and lanthanum carbonate for the treatment of hyperphosphatemia. In the process, mystical/magical use of metals in medicine has given way to rational design and testing of new metallopharmaceutical compounds. Advances in our understanding of bioinorganic chemistry and increasingly sensitive analytical instrumentation enable an accelerated pace of development in medicinal inorganic chemistry.

Validation and Applications of Protein–Ligand Docking Approaches Improved for Metalloligands with Multiple Vacant Sites

“…In fact, many metal ions, in a free or complexed form, are part of the active site of proteins and have transport, storage, or enzymatic functions. Other metal species are involved in the diagnosis [for example, gadolinium­(III) complexes are used for contrast enhancement in magnetic resonance imaging] or therapy of several diseases such as the antiulcer agent bismuth­(III) citrate (De-Nol), the antiarthritic triethylphosphine gold­(I) complex (auranofin), the anticancer cisplatin and its derivatives carboplatin and oxaliplatin, and the antitumor ruthenium­(III) compound NAMI-A. , Recently, the perspectives of polyoxometalates as potential antitumor, antiviral, and antibacterial agents were also discussed . For most of them, the interaction with biomolecules is not limited to binding to their therapeutic targets but also to a large number of peptides and proteins that can influence their transport in the blood and cell.…”