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Pharmacology uses palladium’s catalytic properties in complex compounds designed to target cancer cell delivery. For instance, palladium molecules can be attached to nanozymes – polymeric capsules with gold nanoparticles coated in positively charged molecules. These nanoparticles strongly attract negatively charged cell surfaces. One inside the cell, palladium catalyses the activation of drug molecules.
Challenges of current technology
For decades, researchers have been searching for biologically active compounds with strong anticancer and antibacterial properties. These efforts aim to combine effectiveness with low toxicity and have developed along several lines of research.
Positive impact of palladium
Palladium itself is a low-toxicity metal (although its compounds can be highly toxic), and recent research indicates its strong anticancer activity against a broad range of tumours.
So palladium, unlike platinum, forms low-toxicity compounds that can play a significant role in chemotherapy for cancer treatment. This metal bonds with organic molecules to create unique synthetic compounds designed for cancer treatment.
In mouse models, palladium-assisted breast cancer treatment has been as effective as standard fluorouracil chemotherapy while causing significantly less liver damage. This method could be extended to other drugs, enabling targeted treatments of various cancers.
One drawback of palladium compounds is their tendency to break down quickly in the body. However, researchers have synthesised highly stable compounds that retain their properties in solutions for over two years.
These compounds have demonstrated strong anticancer activity against cancer cells. Researchers confirmed the effectiveness of one such compound in experiments on mice. These mice were implanted with highly aggressive human tumour tissue from triple-negative breast cancer patients. Within 35 days, the compound suppressed tumour growth by 75% compared to untreated mice. Palladium-based compounds avoided healthy cells, showing strong selectivity for tumours.
Similar studies are ongoing worldwide, focusing on various cancer types. Palladium-based compounds have shown promising results in chemotherapy.
The main issue with platinum-based cancer drugs is that they destroy cancer cells but can also harm healthy tissues. Chemotherapy often causes severe side effects that greatly reduce patient quality of life. Palladium compounds are much more labile and generally less toxic than their platinum counterparts.
To find out more about advanced chemical qualities of palladium, see – Chemistry.
To find out more about palladium in pharmacology, see the following scientific publications:
Uvarova, M. A., Baravikov, D. E., Dolgushin, F. M., Aliev, T. M., Titov, K. O., Bekker, O. B., … & Lutsenko, I. A. (2023). Antiproliferative and antimycobacterial effects of mononuclear palladium (II) complexes with N-heterocyclic ligands. Inorganica Chimica Acta, 556, 121649. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ica.2023.121649
Vojtek, M., Marques, M. P., Ferreira, I. M., Mota-Filipe, H., & Diniz, C. (2019). Anticancer activity of palladium-based complexes against triple-negative breast cancer. Drug Discovery Today, 24(4), 1044-1058. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.drudis.2019.02.012
Abdel‐Rahman, L. H., Adam, M. S. S., Abu‐Dief, A. M., Moustafa, H., Basha, M. T., Aboraia, A. S., … & Ahmed, H. E. S. (2018). Synthesis, theoretical investigations, biocidal screening, DNA binding, in vitro cytotoxicity and molecular docking of novel Cu (II), Pd (II) and Ag (I) complexes of chlorobenzylidene Schiff base: Promising antibiotic and anticancer agents. Applied Organometallic Chemistry, 32(12), e4527. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/aoc.4527