Research Network for Metals in Medicine

 

 

Associate Professor Trevor Appleton

Position: Associate Professor, Chemistry

Affiliation: University of Queensland, Faculty of Biological and Chemical Sciences

Postal Address:
The University of Queensland
Brisbane QLD 4072
AUSTRALIA

Phone: +61 (07) 3365 4005
Email: t.appleton@uq.edu.au
Webpage: Professor Appleton's web-page

Research Profile

Chemistry of Platinum Group Metals, including Biological and Organometallic Chemistry. Major techniques used are multinuclear NMR and HPLC. Specific Research topics include:

  • Biological Chemistry of the anti-tumour drug cisplatin and some of its derivatives and analogues, especially the chemistry of the hydrolysis product cis-[Pt(NH3)2Cl(H2O)]+, including its interactions with sulfur-containing amino acids and peptides.
  • (in collaboration with Dr D. Fairlie, Centre for Drug Design & Development, IMB) Use of metal complexes to impose conformations on small peptides by binding to donor groups on amino acid side-chains - for example, binding of Pd(en)2+ to 1,5-histidine residues causes the peptide to adopt an "-helical conformation.

  • Chemistry of Compounds containing platinum in the "unusual" oxidation state III, especially dinuclear complexes containing O-donor bridging ligands such as carboxylates.

  • Chemistry of compounds containing tetramethyldiaminomethane, Me2NCH2NMe2, which can form strained 4-membered rings, bridges between metal ions, or decompose to dimethylamine complexes with release of formaldehyde.

  • The Chemistry of organometallic platinum(IV) compounds containing methoxo ligands, especially the remarkably stable ion fac-[PtMe2(OMe)(H2O)3]+


Selected Publications

  1. Kelso, MJ., N. Hoang, N., Appleton, T.G. and Fairlie, D.P. (2000) The First Solution Structure of a Single alpha-Helical Turn. A Pentapeptide alpha-Helix Stabilised by a Metal Clip. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 122 10488 - 10489.
  2. El-Khateeb, M., Appleton, T.G., Gahan, L.R., Charles, B.G., Berners-Price, S.J. and Bolton, A.M. (1999) Reactions of Cisplatin Hydrolytes with methionine, Cysteine, and Plasma Ultrafiltrate Studied by a Combination of HPLC and NMR Techniques. J. Inorg. Biochem. 77 13-21.
  3. Kelso, MJ., N. Hoang, N., Appleton, T.G. and Fairlie, D.P. (2000) The First Solution Structure of a Single ?-Helical Turn. A Pentapeptide a-Helix Stabilised by a Metal Clip. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 122 10488 - 10489.
    4.