Medicinal Organometallic Chemistry: Designing Metal Arene Complexes as Anticancer Agents

The field of medicinal inorganic chemistry is rapidly advancing. In particular organometallic complexes have much potential as therapeutic and diagnostic agents. The carbon‐bound and other ligands allow the thermodynamic and kinetic reactivity of the metal ion to be controlled and also provide a scaffold for functionalization. The establishment of structure–activity relationships and elucidation of the speciation of complexes under conditions relevant to drug testing and formulation are crucial for the further development of promising medicinal applications of organometallic complexes. Specific examples involving the design of ruthenium and osmium arene complexes as anticancer agents are discussed.     

Comparison of procedures for correction of matrix interferences in the multi-element analysis of soils by ICP-AES with a CCD detection system

Three procedures, matrix matching, plasma optimisation and single-point standard-addition, have been evaluated to ascertain the best procedure for simultaneous multi-element analysis of industrial soils by ICP-AES with CCD detection. A standard reference material, CRM143 from the Bureau Communautaire de Réference (BCR), has been analysed for Cd, Cr, Cu, Mn, Ni and Pb using the three different matrix interference correction procedures. All three procedures give comparable results which are in good agreement with the BCR values, except for Cr. The single-point standard addition procedure was chosen, on the basis of economy and ease of implementation, to correct for matrix interferences in the determination of Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Mn, Mo, Ni, Pb, Sn and V in soil samples collected from an industrial site in England. Concentrations of some of the elements were found to vary greatly with sampling depth. For example, the concentration of Mn, determined using the atomic line at 279.920 nm, increased from 426 ± 3 g/g at a depth of 18–28 cm to 5996 ± 144 g/g at 60–85 cm.     

Structure and dynamics of metallomacrocycles: recognition of zinc xylyl-bicyclam by an HIV coreceptor

As platforms for the design of metal-based therapeutic and diagnostic agents, macrocycles are rigid enough to provide strong metal binding sites and orient functional groups stereoselectively, yet flexible enough to accommodate structural changes required for induced-fit recognition of biological targets. We consider the recognition of the Zn(II) complex of the bis-tetraazamacrocycle xylyl-bicyclam, a potent anti-HIV agent, by the coreceptor CXCR4, a G-protein-coupled receptor used by HIV for membrane fusion and cell entry. NMR studies show that the macrocycles of Zn(II)(2)-xylyl-bicyclam perchlorate exist in aqueous solution as two major configurations, trans-I (nitrogen chirality R,S,R,S), and trans-III (S,S,R,R). Acetate addition induced a major structural change. X-ray crystallography shows that the acetate complex contains the unusual cis-V cyclam configuration (R,R,R,R and folded) with bidentate coordination of acetate to Zn(II) plus second-coordination-sphere double H-bond formation between diagonal NH protons on the opposite cyclam face and acetate carboxylate oxygens. Detailed 1D and 2D NMR studies show that the major configuration of Zn(II)(2)-xylyl-bicyclam acetate in aqueous solution is cis-V/trans-I. Molecular modeling shows that an analogous cis-V site can be formed when Zn(II)(2)-xylyl-bicyclam binds to CXCR4, involving the carboxylate groups of Asp262 (Zn(II) coordination) and Glu288 (double H-bonding). The second cyclam can adopt the trans-I (or trans-III) configuration with Zn(II) binding to Asp171. These interactions are consistent with the known structure-activity relationships for bicyclam anti-HIV activity and receptor mutation. Consideration of the anti-HIV activity of xylyl-bicyclam complexes of other metal ions suggests that affinity for carboxylates, configurational flexibility, and kinetic factors may all play roles in receptor recognition. For example, Pd(II) cyclam complexes interact only weakly with axial ligands and are inflexible and inactive, whereas Co(III) cyclams bind carboxylates strongly, are configurationally flexible, and yet have low activity. Our findings should aid the design of new generations of active macrocycles including highly specific chemokine receptor antagonists.     

Ferromagnetic spin alignment in head-to-tail coupled oligo(1, 4-phenyleneethynylene)s and Oligo(1,4-phenylenevinylene)s bearing pendant p-phenylenediamine radical cations

The intramolecular and long-range ferromagnetic coupling between p-phenylenediamine radical cations in head-to-tail coupled oligo(1, 4-phenyleneethynylene)s and oligo(1,4-phenylenvinylene)s between neighbors and next-nearest neighbors is described. UV/vis/near-IR experiments show that the radical cations are localized in the pendant p-phenylenediamine units of the conjugated oligomers. The ESR spectra of these oligo(1,4-phenyleneethynylene) and oligo(1, 4-phenylenvinylene) di(radical cation)s are consistent with those of a triplet state. A linear behavior is observed for the doubly integrated ESR intensity of the DeltaM(s) = +/-1 and DeltaM(s) = +/-2 signals with the inverse temperature (I approximately 1/T), consistent with Curie's law. This behavior indicates a triplet ground-state diradical with a large triplet-singlet energy gap or possibly a degeneracy of singlet and triplet states.