Cell biology

Cisplatin

Biology

Glycolysis

Thioredoxin reductase

Reactive oxygen species

Apoptosis

Metabolism

Cancer research

Biochemistry

Bioenergetics

Cytotoxicity

Genetics

In vitro

Thioredoxin

Enzyme

Mitochondrion

Chemotherapy

Chemistry

Cancer

Cancer cell

Angewandte Chemie International Edition

Cancer cells usually adapt metabolic phenotypes to chemotherapeutics. A defensive strategy against this flexibility is to modulate signaling pathways relevant to cancer bioenergetics. A triphenylphosphonium‐modified terpyridine platinum(II) complex (TTP) was designed to inhibit thioredoxin reductase (TrxR) and multiple metabolisms of cancer cells. TTP exhibited enhanced cytotoxicity against cisplatin‐insensitive human ovarian cancer cells in a caspase‐3‐independent manner and showed preferential inhibition to mitochondrial TrxR. The morphology and function of mitochondria were severely damaged, and the levels of mitochondrial and cellular reactive oxygen species were decreased. As a result, TTP exerted strong inhibition to both mitochondrial and glycolytic bioenergetics, thus inducing cancer cells to enter a hypometabolic state.

Restraining Cancer Cells by Dual Metabolic Inhibition with a Mitochondrion‐Targeted Platinum(II) Complex