Advances in Metal-Based Anticancer Drugs

A special issue of Inorganics (ISSN 2304-6740). This special issue belongs to the section "Bioinorganic Chemistry".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 September 2025 | Viewed by 147

Special Issue Editors


E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Instituto de Química, Universidade Federal de Uberlândia, Campus Santa Mônica, Uberlândia 38400-902, MG, Brazil
Interests: antimicrobial and anticancer activity; synthesis; spectral characterization; coordination compounds; tuberculosis; Trypanosoma cruzi
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Institute of Chemistry, Federal University of Uberlândia, Uberlândia 38400-902, MG, Brazil
Interests: coordination chemistry; inorganic medicinal chemistry; bioinorganic chemistry; structural chemistry; metal complexes; molecular docking; metals; pharmaceuticals; antibacterial and anticancer activity; molecular target

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Platinum-based anticancer compounds have been used in chemotherapy since the 1980s. Despite the high effectiveness of these drugs, resistance and lack of selectivity are still major obstacles in treatment. Scientists have been exploring the bioinorganic chemistry field to develop new effective and less aggressive chemotherapy drugs. The motivation behind this Special Issue stems from there being plenty of inorganic molecules that can be tailored to allow different mechanisms of action in an organism. The rich reactivity of coordination compounds is due to the potential for variation in the type and number of ligands, the oxidation state of the metal centre, and the coordination geometry surrounding the metal complex. This chemical versatility is rarely obtained with purely organic molecules. Moreover, a synergistic effect can be achieved using a class of bioactive ligand. Based on this, new anticancer compounds with new mechanisms of action offer hope as possible alternatives to overcome the resistance problems found with conventional metallopharmaceuticals.

In this Special Issue, we will present a series of recent papers related to metal complexes and their applications as anticancer agents. We hope that you will submit work and research based on these topics.

Dr. Wendell Guerra
Dr. Carolina Oliveira
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Inorganics is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2200 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • cancer
  • metallodrugs
  • anticancer agents
  • antiproliferative activity
  • biomolecules
  • metal complexes

Benefits of Publishing in a Special Issue

  • Ease of navigation: Grouping papers by topic helps scholars navigate broad scope journals more efficiently.
  • Greater discoverability: Special Issues support the reach and impact of scientific research. Articles in Special Issues are more discoverable and cited more frequently.
  • Expansion of research network: Special Issues facilitate connections among authors, fostering scientific collaborations.
  • External promotion: Articles in Special Issues are often promoted through the journal's social media, increasing their visibility.
  • Reprint: MDPI Books provides the opportunity to republish successful Special Issues in book format, both online and in print.

Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.

Published Papers (1 paper)

Order results
Result details
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

12 pages, 1740 KiB  
Article
A 4-Methylbenzoylhydrazine Pt(II) Complex Inhibits the Proliferation of Breast Cancer Cells by Regulating the Cell Cycle and Inducing Apoptosis
by Huiping Wang, Xianguang Bai, Yarui Li and Kexin Chen
Inorganics 2025, 13(6), 177; https://doi.org/10.3390/inorganics13060177 (registering DOI) - 23 May 2025
Abstract
In this study, a novel 4-methylbenzoylhydrazide·dimethyl sulfoxide·dichloro platinum(II) complex (Pt2) was synthesized and characterized, and its anti-tumor activity and action mechanism were explored. The molecular structure and spatial configuration of the complex were determined using X-ray diffraction. The results obtained using fluorescence spectroscopy [...] Read more.
In this study, a novel 4-methylbenzoylhydrazide·dimethyl sulfoxide·dichloro platinum(II) complex (Pt2) was synthesized and characterized, and its anti-tumor activity and action mechanism were explored. The molecular structure and spatial configuration of the complex were determined using X-ray diffraction. The results obtained using fluorescence spectroscopy demonstrate that this complex can effectively bind to DNA and affect its fluorescence properties. The experimental results show that Pt2 exhibited significant inhibitory effects on a variety of tumor cell lines (MCF-7, HepG-2, NCI-H460, T24, and A549), and its IC50 values were lower than those of cisplatin (DDP), indicating stronger anti-tumor activity. In addition, the complex not only significantly induced the apoptosis of MCF-7 cells but also inhibited cell cycle arrest at the G2 phase, with the proportion of G2-phase cells as high as 49.47%. In conclusion, the 4-methylbenzoylhydrazide platinum(II) complex exhibits good anti-tumor activity by inducing apoptosis and inhibiting the cell cycle, providing an important experimental basis for the development of novel platinum-based anti-tumor drugs. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Metal-Based Anticancer Drugs)
Show Figures

Graphical abstract

Back to TopTop