Bioinorganic Toxicity, Poison or Cure

See symposium information

John Duffus, Edin Tox, Edinburgh, UK

Programme:

Friday 7 August (morning)

Keynote Speaker

Using coordination chemistry to design new medicines: metal and ligand control of biological activity
Peter J. Sadler, University of Warwick, UK

Speakers

Catalytic metallodrugs
J.A. Cowan, The Ohio State University, USA

Iron chelation - expanding therapeutic applications
Robert C. Hider, King's College, London, UK

Metallothionein in cadmium toxicity
Monica Nordberg, Karolinska Institutet Stockholm, Sweden

Pleiotropic effects of cadmium on mesangial cells
Douglas M. Templeton, University of Toronto, Canada

Symposium Information

Our understanding of the role of metallic elements in relation to human health and pathology is developing rapidly and providing new possibilities for intervention to treat pathological conditions.

The symposium will consider some of the most promising new developments that are taking place currently. For example, cancer may be treated by using cytotoxic drugs to kill cancer cells selectively. Among these drugs are platinum azide complexes, developed by Professor Sadler, our keynote speaker. These drugs are relatively unreactive and non-toxic in the dark but can be activated by light. They appear to destroy cancer cells by a novel mechanism and could provide a basis for a new form of photochemotherapy. Studies such as this have opened up new horizons for medical science and new challenges for inorganic chemistry.

Image: This octahedral platinum (yellow) compound containing two azide ligands (cyan) is stable in the dark but on photoactivation is potently cytotoxic for cancer cells. The nitrogens of the additional pyridine and ammonia ligands are dark blue and oxygen of hydroxide ligands is red. Coutesy of Peter J Sadler, University of Warwick.