Capillary electrophoresis as well as ESI-MS has been applied for investigating the influence of the sulfur-containing amino acids L-cysteine and L-methionine on the binding behavior of oxaliplatin (trans-R,R-diaminocyclohexane(oxalato)platinum(II)), cisplatin (cis-diamminedichloroplatinum(II)), carboplatin (cis-diammine-1,1-cyclobutanedicarboxylatoplatinum(II)), cis-diammine(malonato)platinum(II) and cis-diammine(2-hydroxymalonato)platinum(II) to 5'-GMP. The presence of L-methionine resulted in a different kind of adduct formation which involves ammine release due to the trans-effect of sulfur. In addition, the time-dependent behavior of the reaction with 5'-GMP changed significantly. Due to the high stability of the diaminocyclohexane (DACH) platinum fragment, oxaliplatin showed a completely different behavior in comparison to diammine platinum complexes. Formation of [Pt(DACH)(L-Met-S,N)](+) inhibits coordination of 5'-GMP. Displacement of L-Met by 5'-GMP does not occur. Differences concerning the mode of action of oxaliplatin are expected. Characterization of the analytes was performed by UV, NMR and mass spectrometry.