METAL in PharMacEuTicAL
The simple inorganic platinum compound cis-diamminedichloroplatinum(II), also known as cisplatin, is one of the most important anticancer drug in clinical use. The discovery of its antitumoural activity by Barnett Rosenberg some 40 years ago opened a new area of anticancer research based on metal complexes.
In the Laboratory of Bioinorganic Chemistry, headed by Dr. Ang Wee Han, we are interested in taking the development of these metal complexes to a whole new level. Our research involves the study of the "metal" in pharmaceutical drugs for cancer therapy. Using rational drug design, we explore alternative strategies and analytical tools to develop viable chemotherapeutic agents based not only on platinum but also other metal centres.
Laboratory Group Members (Photo taken Aug 2015)
Featured Publications
- , Apoptosis-independent organoruthenium anticancer complexes that overcome multidrug resistance: self-assembly and phenotypic screening strategies , Chem. Sci., 2017, in press
- , Finely Tuned Asymmetric Platinum(IV) Anticancer Complexes: Structure–Activity Relationship and Application as Orally Available Prodrugs, ChemMedChem, 2016, 4, 300-311
- , Structural tuning of organoruthenium compounds allows oxidative switch to control ER stress pathways and bypass multidrug resistance, Chem. Sci., 2016, 7, 4117-4124
- , Induction of Immunogenic Cell Death by Chemotherapeutic Platinum Complexes (VIP), Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. , 2015, 54, 6483-6487
- , Induction of Targeted Necrosis with HER2-targeted Platinum(IV) Anticancer Prodrugs, Chem. Sci., 2015, 6, 3051-3056
- , Discovery and Investigation of Anticancer Ruthenium Arene Schiff-Base Complexes via Water-Promoted Combinatorial Three-Component Assembly, J. Med. Chem., 2014, 57, 6043-6059
- , Immuno-Chemotherapeutic Platinum(IV) Prodrugs of Cisplatin as Multimodal Anticancer Agents, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., 2014, 26, 6752-6756
- , Ratiometric Delivery of Cisplatin and Doxorubicin using Tumour-Targeting Carbon-Nanotubes Entrapping Platinum(IV) Prodrugs , Chem. Sci, 2014, 5, 2265-2270
- , A Fluorescent Probe for Investigating the Activation of Anticancer Platinum(IV) Prodrugs Based on the Cisplatin Scaffold, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., 2013, 52, 11785-11789
- , Tuning the activity of platinum(IV) anticancer complexes through asymmetric acylation, J. Med. Chem., 2012, 55, 7571-7582
- , Platinum(IV) prodrugs entrapped within multiwalled carbon nanotubes: Selective release by chemical reduction and hydrophobicity reversal, Chem. Sci., 2012, 3, 2083-2087
