Antitumour Complexes and DNA Interactions and their Tools of Analysis: an Approach to Metalointercalators

DNA is considered to be one of the major targets of anticancer drugs. Cisplatin and its analogues exert their activity by forming covalent bonds with the DNA base pairs. However, the DNA structure enables its interaction with metal complexes in many different modes and intercalation is often observed. Particularly, metallointercalators stand out as a class of potential antitumour agents that could circumvent problems such cellular resistance since their mechanism of action is different from that of cisplatin. The interaction complex-DNA can be studied by various techniques, including reaction with guanosine, electrophoretic mobility shift assay (EMSA), viscosity measurements, spectrocphotometric titration for determination of K-b, DNA thermal denaturation and fluorescence spectroscopy.