The Role of Sulfur in Platinum Anticancer Chemotherapy

Sulfur manifests its influence on platinum anticancer chemotherapy in two aspects: endogenous sulfur-containing molecules such as cysteine, methionine, glutathione, metallothionein and albumin affect the metabolism of platinum drugs and exert adverse effects on the therapeutic efficacy; exogenous congeners such as amifostine (WR-2721) and dimesna (BNP7787) mitigate the toxic side effects of platinum drugs and serve as chemoprotectants. The platinum-sulfur interactions are ubiquitous in the human body and many occurrences encountered during platinum chemotherapy such as uptake, excretion, resistance, and toxicity are related to them. Thus, sulfur-containing molecules play significant roles in the anticancer mechanism of platinum drugs. In this review, the platinum-sulfur interactions are summarized in detail, which may be important for efficient clinical use of the existing platinum agents and beneficial to the rational design of new generation of platinum-based anticancer drugs.