Inhibition of protein kinases in the fight against disease remains a constant challenge for medicinal chemists, who have screened multitudes of predominantly planar organic scaffolds, natural and synthetic, to identify potent-albeit not always selective-kinase inhibitors. Herein, in an effort to investigate the potential biological utility of metal-based compounds as inhibitors against the cancer-relevant targets mitogen-activated protein kinase and cyclin-dependent kinase 2, we explore various parameters in planar platinum(II) complexes with substituted phenanthroline ligands and aliphatic diamine chelate co-ligands, to identify combinations that yield promising inhibitory activity. The individual ligands' steric requirements as well as their pattern of hydrogen bond donors/acceptors appear to alter inhibitory potency when modulated.
Electronic supplementary material: The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s12154-011-0059-5) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Keywords: Bioinorganic; Cdk; ERK; Inhibitor; Kinase; MAPK; Platinum.