The serendipitous discovery of cisplatin opened the door to platinum-based cancer therapy. Even in the era of immunotherapy and precision medicine, platinum compounds are still the mainstay of chemotherapy regimens for various cancers. However, platinum compounds suffer from drug resistance, off-target problems, and various side effects including nephrotoxicity, myelosuppression, ototoxicity, pulmonary toxicity, and neurotoxicity. The emergence of luminescent metal complexes offers tremendous opportunities to address the issues of platinum-based cancer therapy. Luminescent metal complexes, especially noble metal complexes (iridium, ruthenium, gold, osmium, etc.) and lanthanide complexes (europium, neodymium, ytterbium, etc) have the advantage of desirable optical properties and tunable therapeutic effects. These complexes have been developed for targeted cancer therapy, photodynamic therapy, combination cancer therapy with other immunotherapy or targeted therapy, targeted delivery, and theranostics.
Considerable efforts in this area have resulted in the development of clinical candidates for cancer diagnosis and therapy such as TLD1433, representing the next generation of metallodrugs. This research topic will focus on progress and challenges in the development of luminescent transition metal complexes and lanthanide complexes for cancer imaging and therapy. We aim to provide the latest insights on the emerging applications of luminescent transition metal complexes and lanthanide complexes in anticancer therapy and diagnostics, and provide future directions for accelerating the clinical development of luminescent metal-based probes and metallodrugs.
Advances in Cancer Imaging and Therapy Based on Luminescent Metal Complexes | Frontiers Research Topic (frontiersin.org)