Metals and Metal Complexes in Diseases with a Focus on COVID-19: Facts and Opinions

Dear Colleagues, 

The year 2020 was a year like no other, with the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent health crisis profoundly impacting our lives, not to mention the worldwide consequences for education and research, which will take time to elucidate but are predicted to be particularly dramatic. Add to that the profound loss of loved ones and it is easy to lose hope, but we must hold on to the belief that better times are ahead. 

Professionals in the fields of education and research know that certain trace elements (such as copper, cobalt, nickel, and zinc) are considered potential candidates for therapeutic applications. Vanadium, due to its unique features and multidirectional biological activity, has also been attracting interest in many research centers worldwide as a potential candidate in the treatment of certain human diseases such as cancer and diabetes, as well as bacterial and viral illness. Other metals, which are not essential to life, such as platinum, ruthenium, iridium, rhodium, and gold, are also pharmacologically interesting; hence, they are extensively being investigated in biology and used to biomedical applications.

The number of studies on the use of metals and metal-containing compounds in medicine is continually growing. However, despite the progress made in recent years in the study of the pharmacological activity of various metal-containing complexes, further analyses are needed. There are certain aspects which must be elaborated on before metal-containing species can be used as metallopharmaceuticals in the future. These include an examination of the susceptibility of different cells/tissues to the effects of metal-containing compounds; recognition of key factors (ligands) that may affect the mode of their action; identification of metal-containing species as an important factor in the assessment of their toxicity and the mechanisms of action; examination of well-defined forms of metals in terms of their selectivity, specificity, transport, distribution, interference in the signal transduction pathways, and the mechanisms of absorption and excretion thereof; and direct or indirect correlations between the biological effects of metal-containing compounds (including polyoxometalates) and metal-containing complexes with effects observed in cancer, diabetes, and neurological disorders. Additionally, it has been emphasized that therapeutic targets, pharmacokinetics, and pharmacodynamics have to be clarified in detail in order to design metal-based drugs more efficiently.

We invite authors to submit original research exploring biological metals and diseases, the pharmacological activity of metallodrugs, clinical studies, and/or review reports on promising metals and metal-based drug candidates with a focus on strategies aiming to improve their pharmacological features and on links between metal-based agents and potential therapies for human pathologies with a mechanistic analysis. Bearing in mind the current COVID-19 pandemic, we also invite researchers to submit papers on recent data on critical factors—among others, biologically important metal ions such as Ca²⁺ and Zn²⁺—that can influence COVID-19-related susceptibility, severity, and mortality.

Potential topics include but are not limited to:

• New data on trace element status in COVID-19 patients ;
• Metals susceptibility and severity of COVID-19;
• Molecular mechanisms related to COVID-19 and therapeutic strategies;
• Metal and metal–organic complexes targeting viruses and treatment of a wide range of diseases;
• Current areas with the most emphasis on metallobased metal center pharmacology;
• Novel therapeutic metal-based agents having an impact on medicinal practice;
• Biological metals and diseases;
• Diseases and symptoms induced by metal implants;
• Latest progress in the design of pharmacologically active complexes comprising metals and a risk associated with their toxicity;
• Metal chelation therapy to treat diseases;
• Metal biological targets and diseases;
• Design and pharmacological evaluation of novel metal-containing compounds as promising future metallodrugs (synthesis, structure analysis, properties, in vitro/in vivo effects);
• Identification of molecular targets and mechanistic details of potential metal-based drugs: implications of oxidative stress;
• Cancer and diabetic mechanistic relationship for metal-containing compounds (including polyoxometalates);
• Mechanistic relationship between metal and metal-containing compounds (including polyoxometalates) with effects observed in putative biological targets and/or changes in protein expression and/or enzymatic activity;
• Stability and speciation of metal and metal-containing compounds (including polyoxometalates) in biological solutions.

Dr. Agnieszka Ścibior
Prof. Dr. Manuel Aureliano
Dr. Alvin A. Holder
Prof. Dr. Juan Llopis 
Guest Editors

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