Mechanistic insight on the chemistry of potential Pt antitumor agents as revealed by collaborative research performed in Kragujevac and Erlangen

Abstract

© 2019 Elsevier B.V. This personal account reports on the mechanistic insight gained on the chemistry of potential Pt antitumor agents based on the collaborative research between the groups of Živadin Bugarčić in Kragujevac (Serbia) and Rudi van Eldik in Erlangen (Germany). The work focuses on different mononuclear Pt(II) and Pt(IV), as well as dinuclear Pt(II) complexes, the tuning of their lability through steric and electronic (σ-donor and π-acceptor) effects, their interaction with sulfur- and nitrogen-donor bio-relevant nucleophiles, the elucidation of structure-reactivity relationships, and DFT calculations on ground, transition and product state complexes. It presents an overview of the investigated systems and reveals mechanistic information on the basis of spectroscopic and kinetic measurements.