BiotechEast - Taiwan and China biotechnology, medical devices, pharmaceuticals, ^¤å½s×, ^¤å×§ï

A new organometallic complex is disclosed as a potential anti-cancer drug. It has been already established that several platinum complexes, such like Cisplatin and Carboplatin, possess anticancer activity because of their binding capability with DNA molecules. These two already known platinum complexes are already routinely used for the treatment of testicular and ovarian cancers. They and their derivatives have already been developed as new anticancer reagents with less toxic side effects and reduced drug resistance compared to existing therapies.

Our new organometallic complex can be utilized as an efficient photo-induced DNA-cleaving agent under controllable conditions, and a strong DNA binder with site specificity. It is stable in the dark, but it can cleave DNA molecules upon UV irradiation. When it cleaves a DNA molecule, it is predominantly at deoxyadenosine residues without an external base treatment. The mechanism involves a novel step of photo-dissociation of the sulfoxide ligand from an intermediate of organoplatium-deoxyribonucleobase complex. Furthermore, it has been found that the complex can be used for single-strand DNA cleavage. When it binds to DNA, it is with site specificity at the purine residues.