Coordination chemistry of vanadium in metallopharmaceutical candidate compounds

The discovery of vanadium's insulin-like behaviour in vitro, and later of the orally available glucose- and lipid-lowering capability of these same compounds in vivo, has stimulated renewed interest in vanadium coordination chemistry. Besides the anti-diabetic effects for which it is now so well known, vanadium also exhibits a number of other therapeutic effects including anti-tumour and anti-inflammatory activities. In this review, emphasis will be on the most recent developments in the coordination chemistry of vanadium(III), (IV) and (V), as related to development of these compounds for pharmaceutical use. How best to measure bioactivity and the pharmaceutical relevance of accompanying increased oxidative stress will also be considered. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.