Abstract
The medicinal chemistry and biomedical applications of gold complexes have been intensively studied over the last decades. Some complexes have been used for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis, and a considerable number of new metallodrug candidates have been developed as new anticancer drugs and anti-infectives. However, the therapeutic use of gold and its complexes goes back to ancient times and was also of great importance for alchemists until the modern age. In this report, we give an overview of the alchemic medicine between the sixteenth and the early eighteenth century and describe the cytotoxicity and thioredoxin reductase (TrxR) inhibition of a typical "aurum vitae" medicine, which was prepared according to a recipe by Bartholomäus Kretschmar from the seventeenth century. "Aurum vitae" consists of a mixture of gold, mercury and antimony complexes and shows the expected cytotoxic and TrxR inhibitory properties providing some rationale for therapeutic effects of this kind of historical medicinal preparation.
MeSH terms
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Alchemy
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Animals
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Antimony / chemistry*
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Antimony / history*
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Antimony / pharmacology
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Antineoplastic Agents / chemical synthesis
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Antineoplastic Agents / chemistry
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Antineoplastic Agents / history
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Antineoplastic Agents / pharmacology
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Cell Proliferation / drug effects
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Dose-Response Relationship, Drug
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Drug Screening Assays, Antitumor
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Enzyme Inhibitors / chemical synthesis
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Enzyme Inhibitors / chemistry
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Enzyme Inhibitors / pharmacology
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Glucosephosphate Dehydrogenase / antagonists & inhibitors
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Glucosephosphate Dehydrogenase / metabolism
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Gold / chemistry*
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Gold / history*
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Gold / pharmacology
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HT29 Cells
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History, 16th Century
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History, 17th Century
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History, 18th Century
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Humans
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MCF-7 Cells
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Mercury / chemistry*
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Mercury / history
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Mercury / pharmacology
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Rats
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Structure-Activity Relationship
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Sulfides / chemistry*
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Sulfides / history*
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Sulfides / pharmacology
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Thioredoxin-Disulfide Reductase / antagonists & inhibitors
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Thioredoxin-Disulfide Reductase / metabolism
Substances
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Antineoplastic Agents
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Enzyme Inhibitors
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Sulfides
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Gold
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Antimony
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Glucosephosphate Dehydrogenase
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Thioredoxin-Disulfide Reductase
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Mercury