"Metal-based Anticancer Drugs: Structure-Activity Relationship for the Cytotoxicity of Simple and Mixed Ligand Transition Metal(II) Complexes of Diimine"

Chemotherapy is one of the most effective treatments for patients with cancer. However, the cytotoxicity of chemotherapeutic agents to normal tissues is a critical factor that undermines the curative potential of chemotherapy. So, there is considerable attention focused on the design of new metal-based drugs that exhibit enhanced selectivity and novel modes of DNA interaction like non-covalent interactions that mimic the mode of interaction of proteins with DNA. The designing of non-covalent DNA binding anticancer drugs is growing in interest because the covalently DNA binding anticancer agent cisplatin possesses inherent limitations such as low degree of selectivity, high toxicity and low administration dosage. The non-covalently DNA binding and cleaving mixed ligand biocompatible Cu(II) and Ru(II) complexes have received considerable attention during the past few years in an attempt to replace cisplatin.