INTRODUCTION
During recent years, platinum based drugs have been considered as a hallmark of cancer chemotherapy due to its considerable success in the treatment of a wide variety of cancer types. The most significant and commonly used form of platinum based drugs is cisplatin. Although treatment with cisplatin has found success on many occasions, its broad mode of action and overuse has led to toxic side effects in patients as well as increasing drug resistance in some tumor cells.1 For those reasons combined, scientists have redirected their investigation into other metal based drugs in attempt to find potential alternatives that can overcome cisplatin resistance and lessen the severity of toxic side effects.
Gold was one of the top choices of alternate metals to study due to its well established reputation in medicinal application throughout history. In the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis, gold drugs have been utilized for quite some time displaying notable results. Its immunosuppressive and anti-inflammatory characteristics exhibited in rheumatoid arthritis patients connected its potential benefits in cancer treatment.2 Gold was also a popular choice among other metals due to its similarity in geometrical structure as well as being isoelectronic with cisplatin.1 With those impending characteristics in hand, gold seemed like a reasonable candidate for this investigation.
CHARACTERISTICS OF THE GOLD COMPLEXES
Gold complexes in the oxidative state +I and +III are the main two forms of gold complexes used in cancer chemotherapy. Gold (I) complexes are comparable to the current leading rheumatoid arthritis drug auranofin in its structure along with upholding its immunosuppressive and anti-inflammatory characteristics.
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...rd R.T. Gold Derivatives For the Treatment of Cancer. Oncology Hematology. 2002, 42, 225-248.
[3] Ott, Ingo. On the Medicinal Chemistry of Gold Complexes as Anticancer Drugs. Coord. Chem. Rev. 2009, 253, 1670-1681.
[4] Gabbiani, Chiara; Cinellu, Maria Agostina, Maiore, Laura; Scaletti, Federica; Messori, Luigi. Chemistry and Biology of Three Representative Gold (III) Compounds as Prospective Anticancer Agents. Inorg. Chem., 2012, 393, 115-124
[5] Rigobella, Maria Pia; Messori, Luigi; Marcon, Giordana. Gold Complexes Inhibit Mitochondiral Thioredoxin Reductase: Consequences on Mitochondrial Functions. J. Inorg. Biochem. 2004, 98, 1634-1641.
[6] Palanichamy, Kamalakannan; Sreejayan, Nair; Ontko, Allyn. Overcoming Cisplatin Resistance Using Gold (III) Mimics: Anticancer Activity of Novel Gold (III) Polypyridyl Complexes. J. Inorg. Biochem. 2012, 106, 32-42.
In chapter 8 titled "Radium (Ra)" of The Poisoner's Handbook by Deborah Blum, the most interesting story developed within this chapter was the death of dial workers at Orange, New Jersey after been exposed to radium every day. It was interesting due to the fact that radium was used everywhere in the community and was never thought it could harm anyone. Radium was a super element that was used everywhere, but its continuous use unmasked its fatal habits. As it was stated in the text, "Radiant health, the ads proclaimed-beautiful skin, endless vigor, and eternal health—ingesting radium seemed the next best thing to drinking sunlight." (Blum 179). People were accepting radium as a natural gold element but they haven't realized constant contact
From King Midas’ greed to the treasure of the Incas, gold is easily the most widely treasured metal known throughout history. Nearly every culture or group has placed heavy inherent value on it and includes it in their lore. Even the name for gold was graciously thought out and applied. It is derived from the word “geolo”, the Old English word for “yellow”. The periodic symbol for gold, Au, is from the Latin word aurum, “glowing dawn” . Its uses are both, immeasurable and prehistoric. However, its use in the electrodeposition process, the main discussion in this paper, has only been dated back to roughly 1850. Unlike gold, potassium was only acknowledged as an element in the early 1800’s. Potassium Cyanide has a grim history of murder and suicide. Most research on the compound is devoted to the effects it has on humans. Potassium Cyanide, in the industrial sense, is used as a reducing agent, in chemical analysis, metallurgy, and in the process of gold extraction. Uses of Potassium Cyanide also extend into pharmacy and photography .
The well-known “penicillin of cancer drugs” is probably an appropriate nickname of cisplatin due to its world widely use as the first and one of the most effective treatment for numerous cancer diagnoses. One important thing that must be point out is that cisplatin is a very simple inorganic molecule comparing to other cancer drugs which generally are complex organic molecules. In order to design and develop new related cancer drugs, cisplatin has been used as a gold model by many scientists.
Gold bears quite a number of chemical properties that I will discuss in details down here. These point out on how gold behaves at various conditions. The chemical formula of gold is Au which is derived from its chemical name. When it comes to gold’s activity, it is not chemically active. This means that it greatly resists any kind of chemical reaction. In most cases, it rarely reacts with other chemicals. Gold is easily reduced from a compound to become a metal. It has two main compounds. These compounds are the Chloral-auric acid as well as the auric chloride. When we come to how gold reacts with certain acids, it is clear that there is an acid that is very able to dissolve this element. This acid is known as Aqua regia and is a combination of hydrochloric and nitric acids. Gold is not able to react with non-metals. Under this case, it only reacts with halogens and forms what is known as halides. The main alloys that can be used to make gold harder include platinum metal and silver (Tocci,
...norganic form. The glutathione conjugation has proven to excrete arsenic compounds from inside the cell. Most arsenicals are conjugated with GSH in the liver and transported outside the cells. However, in some cases it cannot be said for certain if GSH is conjugated with certain arsenicals enzymatically or non-enzymatically. GSH reduces arsenate to arsenite and arsenite is then complexed. Its suggested that As(III) can be regulated by the presence of GSH. Glutathione S-transferase-omega (GSTO) is another compound under scrutiny because it is believed that this compound assists in the formation of arsenic-glutathione conjugates. Recent studies have focused on AS3MT as one of the main enzymes involved in the metabolism of inorganic arsenic because it may be used to convert iAs to MMAV and DMAV. However, in some cases it has been seen that AS3MT is inhibited by As(III)
The synthesis of cisplatin is very well established and is one of the most classic examples of synthesis in inorganic chemistry (figure 1). Dhara reported in 1970 “A rapid method for the synthesis of cis-[PtCl2(NH3)2].”8 The starting material, K2[PtCl4], is treated with excess of KI to be converted into K2[PtI4]. The product is subsequently treated with NH3 to obtain yellow colored cis-[PtI2(NH3)2] that is collected and dried. cis-[PtI2(NH3)2] is then dissolved in AgNO3 to precipitate out AgI that is removed. The solution containing cis-[Pt(OH2)2(NH3)2]2+ is lastly treated with KCl to produce the final, yellow-colored product, cisplatin.
...Coauthor, ChemBioChem 2006, 7, 1-10; b) A. Author, B. Coauthor, Angew. Chem. 2006, 118, 1-5; Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2006, 45, 1-5.))
Cancer in one way or another touches all of us, whether as a patient or through the diagnosis of the people you love around you. Millions of patients who are faced with cancer are depending on oncologists everywhere to cure cancer so others will not suffer like they had to. Optimistically, sooner rather than later this international problem will come to an end. There are a number of drug companies that have been coming out with cancer treatment drugs. “Oncology has been one of the hottest and most active therapeutic areas for drug development, drug makers may want to take note of a finding that new cancer drugs have proven far more difficult to gain approval than medicines for infectious and autoimmune diseases.” (nature.com) Unfortunately, these drugs cannot cure the cancer but it sure makes it a load easier o...
Chemotherapy is the use of chemicals to cure cancer. Chemotherapy is also known as “chemo”. The term for chemo came from the German bacteriologist Paul Ehrlich around the year 1900. He came up with the term when he was examining aniline dyes and arsenicals as possible treatments for diseases such as syphilis. He envisioned “magic bullets” that would be able to target invading organisms but still leave the host unscathed. This goal has been providing therapeutic benefits without many side effects in all areas of drug development. There has been a lot of success with compounds that modulate normal biochemistry within the body.
Almost everyone is touched by cancer in some way and the number of people living with and beyond cancer grows greater every year. Globally 14 million people are diagnosed with cancer each year and 8 million people will die from it annually. Half of all men and one-third of all women will develop cancer during their lifetime. (13) There are many treatments for cancer, mainly: surgery, radiation and chemotherapy. These traditional treatments have many negative side effects. Therefore, increasingly, other treatments, such as hormonal therapy and targeted therapy are being used for certain cancers. Nanotechnology is a form of targeted therapy that destroys cancer tumors with minimal damage to healthy tissues and organs. Scientists are already using nanotechnology in early detection of elimination of cancer cells before they form tumors. But the real game changer will be when nanotechnology targets cancer tumors in treatment (11,13).
Alloys in the ornament manufacturing are a general use of gold. Because of it is...
Many plants and plant derived products are used in cancer therapy as cytotoxic agents. Examples include Taxol that is used for breast cancer (which gets its active constituent from Pacific Yew tree) and the vinca alkaloids used for leukaemia (from the Madagascar ...
...r is hard to cure due to its ability to metastasis and avoid apoptosis due to mutation occurs in the genes during mitosis, especially on oncogen and tumour suppressor gene. Oncogen contribute to cancer cells by encouraging cells to grow and divide excessively while tumour suppressor genes inhibit apoptosis. As all cells on Earth require oxygen, nutrients and the ability to remove waste products to survive and develop, it seems possible to develop anti-cancer drugs which will target at those blood vessels which supply nutrients to tumour cells. Even though this method is providing some promising results, there is no significant improvement in the overall survival of the organism in the long term. Nevertheless, the understanding of cellular basis of cancer cells gain from numerous researches have certainly help in developing new and effective treatment for cancer.
The usage of gold is not limited to banks and jewelry industry. This metal is also usable to a wide array of industries, such a medicine, electronics, dentistry, and aerospace.
Gold is the “noblest'; of the noble metals (gold, platinum, palladium, and rhodium), so termed because of their inertness, or reluctance to enter into chemical reactions. Gold will not react with common acids but is attacked by a three-to-one mixture of hydrochloric and nitric acids. This combination is called aqua regia because it reacts with the so-called royal metal. Gold will not combine directly with oxygen, but oxides may be formed indirectly. Gold will also combine with the halogens (fluorine, chlorine bromine, and iodine) and with the cyanides.