Water soluble luminescent platinum terpyridine complexes with glycosylated acetylide and arylacetylide ligands: photoluminescent properties and cytotoxicities

Platinum(II) terpyridine complexes with glycosylated acetylide and arylacetylide ligands bind to DNA with binding constants similar to 10(5) mol(-1) dm(3); the glycosylated arylacetylide complexes exhibit emission at lambda(max) approximate to 620 nm in water and are up to similar to 100-times higher in potency than the clinical cisplatin drug in killing cancer cells.