Platinum, commonly known as platinum, is a metal more precious than gold. Platinum, like gold, is very rare in nature and often exists in gravel in the form of pure metal. In 1748, Spanish scientist Antonio UGUA discovered platinum in the Pinto river gold mine. The world's output of platinum is only 20 tons.
Platinum has become an important catalyst in the chemical industry because of its high temperature and corrosion resistance. It is often used to make valuable ornaments and containers resistant to high temperature and corrosion, as well as as as catalysts. Nowadays, platinum is more appreciated in people's eyes. It can also be used to treat cancer and become a killer of cancer.
Why can platinum become the bane of cancer? What kind of opportunity makes it engage in this great cause?
In 1960, Bernard Luxemburg, a biophysicist at Michigan State University, discovered a platinum compound called diamine dichloroplatinum produced by the chemical reaction between platinum electrode and ammonium chloride when studying the effect of electromagnetic field on cells. It has two kinds of molecular structures: one is cis structure, in which two chlorine atoms and two ammonia atoms are connected on both sides of platinum atom respectively; The other is a trans structure, with a chlorine atom and an ammonia atom on both sides of the platinum atom group. Cisplatin, a cis structured platinum compound with inhibitory effect on cancer cells, has an effective rate of 80%.
However, cisplatin has headache side effects, especially harmful to the kidney. Therefore, in order to overcome the defect of cisplatin, scientists have screened a large number of platinum compounds in order to find less toxic platinum drugs. Later, after many twists and turns, researchers finally found a platinum compound. This platinum compound takes vitamin C as the basic structure, and the platinum atom is connected to the molecule of vitamin C according to the cisplatin structure. Because vitamin C is non-toxic to human body, this platinum compound will not endanger human health. In addition, platinum can also be used to make a capsule for cancer treatment. The outside of the capsule is coated with platinum, and a small gap is left in the middle of the coating. The capsule contains a small amount of radioisotopes. Implanted into the tumor through surgery, because platinum will not be rejected by the human body, the capsule can be fixed at a specific position in the body. The radiation emitted by the radioisotope in the capsule will shoot onto the tumor through the coating gap and kill cancer cells. Due to the shielding effect of platinum coating on radiation, normal human cells can be protected from radiation.
Now, cisplatin and other platinum compounds have shown the power to fight cancer, and scientists have found its potential to fight viruses, bacteria and parasitic bacteria. In addition, platinum compounds are also expected to become an important tool for the diagnosis of some diseases.