The accidental discovery of the anticancer properties of cisplatin and its clinical introduction in the 1970s represent a major landmark in the history of successful anticancer drugs. Although carboplatin--a second-generation analogue that is safer but shows a similar spectrum of activity to cisplatin--was introduced in the 1980s, the pace of further improvements slowed for many years. However, in the past several years interest in platinum drugs has increased. Key developments include the elucidation of mechanisms of tumour resistance to these drugs, the introduction of new platinum-based agents (oxaliplatin, satraplatin and picoplatin), and clinical combination studies using platinum drugs with resistance modulators or new molecularly targeted drugs.

The resurgence of platinum-based cancer chemotherapy

Asymmetric Transfer Hydrogenation Catalyzed by Chiral Ruthenium Complexes

Oxidative Nucleobase Modifications Leading to Strand Scission

Zinc enzymology is, compared to some other current areas of metallobiochemistry, a maturing field, but in addition to further developments of structure-function relationships it has also provided a number of surprising new results and ideas in the last few years. In fact, the number of studies makes it impossible to provide a comprehensive review of the recent literature on zinc enzymology here, and the authors therefore focus on those zinc enzymes for which structure-function relationships are possible on the basis of structural and biochemical data. This means that, with a few exceptions, only zinc enzymes for which NMR or crystal structures are available are included here. Another seemingly simple, yet experimentally sometimes complex issue concerns the choice of which metalloenzyme is a zinc enzyme. Since there is in principle no difference in chemical catalysis by low-affinity compared to high-affinity metal sites, some of these enzymes are also included in this article, especially if they are or have been discussed as zinc enzymes, or are active with zinc. 552 refs.

Recent Advances in Zinc Enzymology

Introduction Chapter 1 "Unique Properties of Fluorine and Their Relevance to Medicinal Chemistry and Chemical Biology" by Takashi Yamazaki, Takeo Taguchi and Iwao Ojima Medicinal Chemistry Chapter 2 "Fluorinated Prostanoids: Development of Tafluprost, a New Anti-glaucoma Agent" by Yasushi Matsumura Chapter 3 "Fluorinated conformationally restricted glutamate analogs for CNS drug discovery and development" by Atsuro Nakazato Chapter 4 "Fluorinated Inhibitors of Matrix Metalloproteinases" by Roberta Sinisi, Monika Jagodzinska, Gabriele Candiani, Florent Huguenot, Monica Sani, Alessandro Volonterio, Raffaella Maffezzoni and Matteo Zanda Chapter 5 "Fluoro-Taxoid Anticancer Agents" by Antonella Pepe, Larisa Kuznetsova, Liang Sun and Iwao Ojima Chapter 6 "Antimalarial Fluoroartemisinins: Increased Metabolic and Chemical Stability"by Jean-Pierre Begue, Daniele Bonnet-Delpon Chapter 7 "Synthesis and Biological Activity of Fluorinated Nucleosides" by Tokumi Maruyama, Masahiro Ikejiri, Kunisuke Izawa and Tomoyuki Onishi Synthetic methods for medicinal chemistry and chemical biology Chapter 8 "Synthesis of gem -Difluoromethylenated Nucleosides via gem -Difluoromethylene-Containing Building Blocks" by Wei-Dong Meng and Feng-Ling Qing Chapter 9 "Recent Advances in the Syntheses of Fluorinated Amino Acids" by Kenji Uneyama Chapter 10 "Fluorinated Moieties for Replacement of Amide and Peptide Bonds" by Takeo Taguchi and Hikaru Yanai Chapter 11 "Perfluorinated Heteroaromatic Systems as Scaffolds for Drug Discovery" by David Armstrong, Matthew W. Cartwright, Emma L. Parks, Graham Pattison, Graham Sandford, Rachel Slater, John A. Christopher, David D. Miller, Paul W. Smith and Antonio Vong Chapter 12 " gem -Difluorocyclopropanes as key building blocks for novel biologically active molecules" by Toshiyuki Itoh Chapter 13 "Fluorous Mixture Synthesis (FMS) of Drug-Like Molecules and Enantiomers, Stereoisomers, and Analogs of Natural Products" by Wei Zhang Chapter 14 "Fluorine-18 Radiopharmaceuticals" by Michael R. Kilbourn and Xia Shao Applications of fluorinated amino acids and peptides to chemical biology and pharmacology Chapter 15 "Application of Artificial Model Systems to Study the Interactions of Fluorinated Amino Acids within the Native Environment of Coiled Coil Proteins" by Mario Salwiczek, Toni Vagt and Beate Koksch Chapter 16 "Fluorinated Amino Acids and Biomolecules in Protein Design and Chemical Biology" by He Meng, Ginevra A. Clark , and Krishna Kumar Chapter 17 "Effects of Fluorination on the Bioorganic Properties of Methionine" by John F. Honek Chapter 18 "Structure analysis of membrane-active peptides using 19 F-labeled amino acids and solid state NMR" by Parvesh Wadhwani and Erik Strandberg Chapter 19 "Metabolism of Fluorine-containing Drugs using in vivo Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy" by Erika Schneider Appendix "FDA-Approved Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients Containing Fluorine" by Elizabeth Pollina-Cormier, Manisha Das, and Iwao Ojima

Fluorine in medicinal chemistry and chemical biology

The widely used antitumor drug cis-diamminedichloroplatinum(II) (cisplatin or cis-DDP) reacts with DNA, cross-linking two purine residues through the N7 atoms, which reside in the major groove in B-form DNA. The solution structure of the short duplex [d(CAT-AGCTATG)]2 cross-linked at the GC:GC site was determined by nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). The deoxyguanosine-bridging cis-diammineplatinum(II) lies in the minor groove, and the complementary deoxycytidines are extrahelical. The double helix is locally reversed to a left-handed form, and the helix is unwound and bent toward the minor groove. These findings were independently confirmed by results from a phase-sensitive gel electrophoresis bending assay. The NMR structure differs markedly from previously proposed models but accounts for the chemical reactivity, the unwinding, and the bending of cis-DDP interstrand cross-linked DNA and may be important in the formation and repair of these cross-links in chromatin.

https://science.sciencemag.org/content/sci/270/5243/1842.full.pdf

Solution Structure of a Cisplatin-Induced DNA Interstrand Cross-Link

Metal ion enhanced helicity in synthetic peptides containing unnatural, metal-ligating residues

Chlorosulfenylation-dehydrochlorination reactions. New and improved methodology for the synthesis of unsaturated aryl sulfides and aryl sulfones

The covalent structure of the major product of the interstrand cross-linking reaction of mechlorethamine [bis(2-chloroethyl)methylamine, nitrogen mustard] with duplex DNA was determined using synthetic oligodeoxyribonucleotide duplexes. Analysis of the mobility of cross-linked products by denaturing polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (DPAGE) revealed the reaction to provide intrahelical, interstrand cross-links. These cross-links were cleaved on exposure to aqueous piperidine at deoxyguanosine residues, suggesting N 7 of deoxyguanosine residues as the site of alkylation on DNA

Covalent structure of a nitrogen mustard-induced DNA interstrand cross-link: an N7-to-N7 linkage of deoxyguanosine residues at the duplex sequence 5'-d(GNC)

Sequence preferences of DNA interstrand cross-linking agents: Importance of minimal DNA structural reorganization in the cross-linking reactions of mechlorethamine, cisplatin and mitomycin C

Paul B. Hopkins

Papers

Solution Structure of a Cisplatin-Induced DNA Interstrand Cross-Link

Metal ion enhanced helicity in synthetic peptides containing unnatural, metal-ligating residues

Chlorosulfenylation-dehydrochlorination reactions. New and improved methodology for the synthesis of unsaturated aryl sulfides and aryl sulfones

Covalent structure of a nitrogen mustard-induced DNA interstrand cross-link: an N7-to-N7 linkage of deoxyguanosine residues at the duplex sequence 5'-d(GNC)

Sequence preferences of DNA interstrand cross-linking agents: Importance of minimal DNA structural reorganization in the cross-linking reactions of mechlorethamine, cisplatin and mitomycin C