A new therapeutic perspective on metal-based drugs

Abstract

Metal-based drugs have been at the forefront of research and development in laboratories around the world for several decades. Within the area of medicinal inorganic chemistry, many potential pharmaceuticals have been obtained and evaluated, with some notable examples making their way into therapy. In this Perspective article, we discuss notable examples of metal-based drugs and their mechanisms of action. These mechanisms are predicated on properties unique to coordination compounds, making them relevant to their evaluation as therapeutics for many diseases. Herein, we discuss our research as an example of the design, structural features and biological evaluation of these types of compounds. We present a proposal for the mechanism of action based on a series of experimental and computational studies of our most active compounds in an effort to highlight the potential of metal complexes of small molecules in the development of accessible treatments for infectious diseases.