Metal Compounds as Kinase and Phosphatase Inhibitors in Drug Development : The Role of the Metal and Ligands

Metal-based drugs play a major role in the treatment and diagnosis of a wide variety of diseases. This chapter highlights some of the major developments that involve kinase and phosphatase inhibitors with the metal playing a crucial role in the inhibitory activity and in the modes of action for the treatment of diseases such as cancer and diabetes. Metal centers in complexes can occupy diverse coordination geometries which allow the design of molecules with a better fit for the target kinase or enzyme in more general terms. The modification of organic backbones with metal-based fragments provides also possibilities for the improvement of pharmacological properties. This may influence the pharmacokinetic behavior of compounds depending on the ligands, metal, and coordination geometry. Protein tyrosine phosphatases (PTPs) are an extensive subcategory of phosphatase enzymes which, similarly to protein kinases, play an essential role in signal transduction and the regulation of various cellular processes.