Anticancer compounds chelating agents

The anticancer drug razoxane (87) is a diimide of a substituted EDTA. Such compounds were investigated because they may generate chelating agents in vivo, but their mode of action has not been elucidated. 

Due to the success of m-platin in anticancer therapy, medicinal chemists have rapidly begun to evaluate the utility of metal complexes as antimalarials [91-94], We will not report all of the bioinorganic compounds that have been synthesized and tested. In the following, we will just focus on the most representative agents. For example, we will not review the metal chelators. 

A number of zinc compounds and complexes have been developed for therapeutic purposes. Several zinc complexes of cyclam-based ligands have proved potent inhibitors of HIV, while hydroxypyridinone complexes are being assessed as insulin mimics for the treatment of diabetes. There is some evidence that the administration of certain zinc chelates may help to ward off strokes, while a suberoylanihde hydroxamate complex has been in clinical trials as an anticancer agent since 2000. 

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