A copper transport protein plays an important role in binding platinum complexes to cell nuclei in anti-tumour treatment, an Italian research team has claimed.

Platinum complexes such as cisplatin are used in anti-tumour treatment and work by crossing cells' membranes and attaching themselves to DNA in nuclei, thus preventing the cell from growing.

Prior to the team's research it was thought that cisplatin simply passes through the cell membrane.

However, according to scientists at the University of Bari's findings, a copper transporter is key to binding platinum to the DNA.

The team's thesis is informed by experiments in which they produced a synthetic peptide with a structure akin to the extracellular end of the copper transport protein, physorg.com reports.

It was found that the peptide displaces all four of the central platinum ions' ligands, thus binding to platinum ion itself.

Professor Giovanni Natile, who led the research, proposes that this suggests that rather than passing through the channel, the platinum ion instead stabilises the trimeric channel structure.

In turn, he says, a process called endocytosis is set in motion, in which the cell membrane encircles the transporter and subsequently forms an interior bubble filled with the outer medium, which contains cisplatin.

The bubble then transfers to the interior of the cell and comes into contact with the nucleus.

Source:

How Does the Antitumor Drug Get to the Cell Nucleus?, 30/10/07
http://www.physorg.com/news112946388.html

Interaction between Platinum Complexes and a Methionine Motif Found in Copper Transport Proteins, 30/10/07
http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/resolvedoi?DOI=10.1002/anie.200703271


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