1. Dipartimento di Scienze Chimiche e Geologiche, Università degli Studi di Cagliari, Cittadella Universitaria, 09042, Monserrato-Cagliari, Italy 2. Dipartimento di Scienze Chimiche, Università degli Studi di Padova, Via Marzolo 1, 35131, Padova, Italy 3. Dipartimento di Scienze Chimiche e Farmaceutiche, Università di Ferrara, Via Fossato di Mortara 27, 44121, Ferrara, Italy
Abstract:
Our objective is to illustrate the activity of the groups operating in Italy involved in identification and study of new chelating agents, mainly intended for treatment of human pathology correlated with metal overload. The objective of “chelation therapy” is removal of toxic metal ions from the human body or attenuation of their toxicity by transforming them into less toxic compounds or by dislocating them from the site at which they exert a toxic action. Because most of this research activity is related to chelating agents for iron and aluminium, diseases related to these two metal ions are briefly treated. Iron overload is the most common metal toxicity disease worldwide. The toxicity of aluminium in dialysis patients was a serious problem for haemodialysis units in the seventies and eighties of the last century. In particular, this review focuses on research performed by the group at Cagliari and Ferrara, and by that at Padova. The former is studying, above all, bisphosphonate and kojic acid derivatives, and the latter is investigating 3,4-hydroxypyridinecarboxylic acids with differently substituted pyridinic rings.
Figure
Aim of this paper is to illustrate the research on different classes of ligands, which are intended as possible chelating agents for the treatment of human pathologies correlated to iron and aluminium overload.