The Perspective for Luminescent Transition Metalbased Theranostic Probes

Abstract

Transition metal-based chemotherapy drugs became one of the workhorses in the clinic since cisplatin was approved as an anticancer drug in 1970s [1]. The wide medical use of other related platinum drugs including carboplatin and oxaliplatin further spurred the intense interests of the scientists in the development of metallodrugs. However, it is aware that tumors can be evolved to be resistant to platinum drugs, prompting to develop non-platinumbased metallodrugs. Nowadays, a variety of metal-based complexes have been investigated as agents for various diseases ranging from cancers to neurodegenerative diseases [2]. However, it should be noted that no new non-radioactive metallodrug was approved for medical use after the platinum drugs [3].