Prof. Dr. Zia-ur-Rehman

Department of Chemistry,
Qauid-i-Azam University, Islamabad

Short Bio: Prof. Dr. Zia-ur-Rehman completed his Post-Doc from University College London, UK in 2022. He remained Higher Education Fellow to McGill University Canada in 2007. His group is involved in the synthesis of new materials for biomedical and has published more than 150 research articles (IF: 600) in various journals of international repute and is a co-author of a book entitled “DNA Binding and DNA Extraction: Methods, Applications, and Limitations.”

Keynote Topic: Current Status and Future Perspectives of the Platinum-based Anticancer drugs 

Following the accidental breakthrough of cisplatin, numerous analogues have been prepared and some of them, namely carboplatin, oxaliplatin, nedaplatin, heptaplatin and lobaplatin, have received the clinical status either locally or worldwide. Despite their high anticancer action, there are some unwanted issues like low cellular uptake, diversion to off-target biomolecules, nephrotoxicity and resistance are related to them. These problems originate from their square planar structure (susceptible to nucleophilic attack), high affinity of platinum(II) for sulfur donor bioligands, and formation of a repairable bifunctional adduct with DNA. To overcome the foregoing problems, new ternary platinum(II) complexes, also called monofunctional complexes, have been prepared and assessed for their anticancer ability. Owing to their unique structural design and dissimilar mechanism of action, the complexes were found several times more active than cisplatin

Fig. 1 Structures of bifunctional (upper) and monofunctional platinum(II) complexes (lower).