Elemental mapping of metal complexes in cancer cells

Most current treatments for cancers can be very toxic and the majority use agents which bind to DNA. Metal complexes provide a promising alternative mechanism for the treatment of both cancer and microbial infections and may be effective in combatting resistance to currently available drugs. 

Transition and metal complexes are often formed of molecules with little or no pharmacological activity that require activation to release the active parent drug and interact with target sites. Therefore, understanding the roles of both the metal and the ligands in their activation is vital for effective drug design to take place.   

In order to optimise the structure-activity relationship of metallodrugs, a group of scientists from the University of Warwick and CIC biomaGUNE used XRF at Diamond to investigate the time-dependent accumulation and localisation of anti-cancer complexes both in cancer and normal cells, as well as understand the role of metal and ligand in their activation.  

Find out what they discovered.