Perspectives of antimony compounds in oncology

Abstract

Antimony, a natural element that has been used as a drug for over more than 100 years, has remarkable therapeutic efficacy in patients with acute promyelocytic leukemia. This review focuses on recent advances in developing antimony anticancer agents with an emphasis on antimony coordination complexes, Sb (III) and Sb (V). These complexes, which include many organometallic complexes, may provide a broader spectrum of antitumoral activity. They were compared with classical platinum anticancer drugs. The review covers the literature data published up to 2007. A number of antimonials with different antitumoral activities are known and have diverse applications, even though little research has been done on their possibilities. It might be feasible to develop more specific and effective inhibitors for phosphatase-targeted, anticancer therapeutics through the screening of sodium stibogluconate (SSG) and potassium antimonyltartrate-related compounds, which are comprised of antimony conjugated to different organic moieties. For example, SSG appears to be a better inhibitor than suramin which is a compound known for its antineoplastic activity against several types of cancers.

Toxicometallomics for Research on the Toxicology of Exotic Metalloids Based on Speciation Studies

“…47 In addition, some Sb compounds show antitumor activity. 48 On the other hand, hematuria, dermatitis, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, pharyngitis, and nephrotoxicity were reported to be clinical symptoms of Sb toxicosis. 49 It was also reported that Sb workers had an increased incidence of lung cancer.…”

Metabolism of tellurium, antimony and germanium simultaneously administered to rats

“…Meglumine antimonate and sodium sti- (Santos et al, 2008). In addition, an Sb compound was developed as an antitumor agent (Sharma et al, 2008). A Ge-containing drug, propagermanium, was evaluated for potential use as an immunomodulator (Hirayama et al, 2003).…”

Anticancer Activity of Molecular Compounds of Arsenic, Antimony and Bismuth

“…Some of the antimony compounds used for the treatment of leishmaniasis have also been investigated for potential antitumour activity [56][57][58][59]. Sodium stibogluconate has been evaluated for antileukaemic activity against the myeloid leukaemia cell lines (NB4, HL-60 and U937) and shown to induce differentiation of acute myeloid leukaemia.…”

“…Further, the results suggest that sodium stibogluconate is functioning as a PTPase inhibitor in the leukaemia cells [57]. It appears that most attention in developing new antimony based anticancer agents has been directed to newly synthesized molecules [58,59]. The following is an overview of recent studies in this area.…”