Publication in Angewandte Chemie International Edition

The publication entitled “A Photoactivatable Platinum(IV) Complex Targeting Genomic DNA and Histone Deacetylases“(authors: J. Kašpárková, H. Kostrhunová, O. Nováková, R. Křikavová, J. Vančo, Z. Trávníček, V. Brabec) was published in the journal Angewandte Chemie International Edition (IF2014 = 11.261). The work describes toxic effects of a photoactivatable platinum(IV) complex conjugated with suberoyl-bis-hydroxamic acid in tumor cells. The conjugate exerts, after photoactivation, two functions: activity as both a platinum(II) anticancer drug and histone deacetylase inhibitor in cancer cells. This approach relies on the use of a Pt(IV) pro-drug, acting by two independent mechanisms of biological action in a cooperative manner, which can be selectively photoactivated to a cytotoxic species in and around a tumor, thereby increasing selectivity towards cancer cells.