How do metals interact with DNA?

Since a couple of decades, metal-containing drugs have been successfully used to fight against certain types of cancer. The lack of knowledge about the underlying molecular mechanisms slows down the search for new and more efficient chemotherapeutic agents. An international team of scientists, led by Leticia González from the University of Vienna and Jacinto Sá from the Uppsala University, have developed a protocol that is able to detect how metal-based drugs interact with DNA. To fight cancer, every year thousands of chemical substances are screened for their potential effects on tumor cells. Once a compound able to inhibit cancer cell growth is found, it still takes several years of research until the drug gets approved and can be applied to patients. The elucidation of the different pathways that a drug takes within human cells, in order to predict possible adverse effects, usually requires elaborate and time-consuming experiments. The teams of Leticia González from the Faculty of Chemistry of the University of Vienna and Jacinto Sá from Uppsala University have developed a protocol that is able to detect with high precision how, where, and why a drug interacts with the biomolecules of an organism.