| RESEARCH |
Tracking metal complexes in cancer cells UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD CHEMISTRY DEPARTMENT IMAGE The first fluorescence measurements of the uptake and distribution of metal thiosemicarbazone complexes in living cells have been carried out at the University of Oxford, in England [Chem. Commun., 2005, 845]. Chemistry professor Jonathan R. Dilworth and coworkers prepared a range of fluorescent zinc bis(thiosemicarbazone) complexes by the reaction of zinc acetate with various bis(thiosemicarbazones). Some zinc thiosemicarbazone complexes are known to be active as antitumor agents. "Although fluorescence of organic molecules is widely used in studies of cells, its use to track the cellular distribution of biologically active metal complexes has been less common," Dilworth says. Fluorescence images of the zinc complexes in living human cancer cells, such as the ovarian cancer cell (shown), reveal significant uptake of the complexes in the nucleoli. The uptake is dependent on the type of cancer cell and the peripheral substituents on the complexes. The team is now conducting studies to see if reduction of nonfluorescent copper(II) complexes to copper(I) complexes can switch on fluorescence images that enable the redox processes within cells to be mapped. |
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