Cancer is a global health problem. Immense effort has been invested in cancer therapy. As one of the most common cancer treatments, chemotherapy plays an important role in lung cancer, bronchus cancer, ovary cancer, etc. Huge success has been seen in the clinical application of cisplatin since the discovery in the last century. Until today, it is still widely utilized in cancer treatment. However, intrinsic resistance and side effect still limit the usage of cisplatin. Therefore, researchers are looking for other solutions that circumvent these hurdles, for example, developing better delivery systems, incorporating less toxic ligands drug and exploring new anticancer mechanisms. While more drugs are being developed, a fast, easy, and comprehensive characterization methodology is...[ Read more ]

Cancer is a global health problem. Immense effort has been invested in cancer therapy. As one of the most common cancer treatments, chemotherapy plays an important role in lung cancer, bronchus cancer, ovary cancer, etc. Huge success has been seen in the clinical application of cisplatin since the discovery in the last century. Until today, it is still widely utilized in cancer treatment. However, intrinsic resistance and side effect still limit the usage of cisplatin. Therefore, researchers are looking for other solutions that circumvent these hurdles, for example, developing better delivery systems, incorporating less toxic ligands drug and exploring new anticancer mechanisms. While more drugs are being developed, a fast, easy, and comprehensive characterization methodology is bound to be developed. Three novel platinum-based agents- , [(NH₃)₂Pt(bt)]⁺, [(bpy)Pt(bt)]⁺, and a new [Pt(C^N)NHC] complex (PtCN1) are being studied by single-molecule force spectroscopy and surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy. Their binding modes are thereby revealed. [(NH₃)₂Pt(bt)]⁺ and [(bpy)Pt(bt)]⁺ show dual binding modes including intercalation and covalent binding. PtCN1 displays stronger covalent interaction towards mismatched DNA. Kinetics studies of the interaction of [(bpy)Pt(bt)]⁺ with DNA will be demonstrated on [(bpy)Pt(bt)]⁺, where two-step association and dissociation are observed.