HPLC analysis to assess efficacy of cisplatin, nedaplatin, and oxaliplatin

Platinum drugs are one of the most widely used agents against cancerous cells. Cisplatin’s chemotherapeutic efficacy is limited by the increase of tumor resistivity and unwanted side effects. Cisplatin’s cytotoxicity is linked to its ability of forming 1,2-intrastrand adducts with adjacent guanine (G) bases. An analytical method to detect and quantify the amount of platinum bound to DNA is necessary to enhance and develop anticancer drugs. In this work, High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) analysis was performed to assess the binding of cisplatin, nedaplatin, and oxaliplatin to the dinucleotide dGpdG. By examining the concentration ratios and incubation periods at 37 °C, we measured the amount of platinum drug reacted with DNA (platination rates) indicating the percentage of Platinum-DNA (Pt-DNA) adducts. Cisplatin proved to be the most effective, followed by nedaplatin, and then oxaliplatin. This research has implications in designing more efficient anticancer drugs.