The Author

Professor Jan Reedijk has held the chair of Inorganic Chemistry at Leiden University since 1979. He was the Director of the Leiden Institute of Chemistry between 1993 and 2005. After obtaining an M.Sc. and Ph.D. from Leiden University (1968), he lectured at Delft University of Technology until taking up his present post. His current research interests include the coordination chemistry of transition metal ions, and bioinorganic chemistry (including active-site structure and mechanism, models and metal-DNA interactions). He has (co)-authored over 1000 patents and research publications in refereed journals (1966–2007), and has supervised over 130 postdoctoral workers and graduate students (1973–2007).

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Metal-Ligand Exchange Kinetics in Platinum and Ruthenium Complexes

Jan Reedijk

Leiden Institute of Chemistry, PO Box 9502, 2300 RA, Leiden, The Netherlands;

Platinum Metals Review

Volume 52 Issue 1 January 2008 Pages 2-11
DOI 10.1595/147106708X255987

Article Synopsis

Metal coordination compounds with ‘slow’ metal-ligand exchange rates, comparable to those of cell division processes, often appear to be highly active in killing cancer cell lines. This is particularly marked in platinum and ruthenium complexes. Classical examples such as cisplatin, as well as very recent examples from the author’s and other work, will be discussed in detail, and in the context of the current knowledge of the mechanism of antitumour action. It is shown that even though much is known about the molecular mechanism of action of cisplatin, many challenging questions are left for future research. For the ruthenium anticancer drugs molecular mechanistic studies are only at the beginning. Mechanistic studies on both platinum and ruthenium compounds have, however, opened many new avenues of research that may lead to the design of completely new drugs.

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