多金属氧酸盐以显著的抗肿瘤、抗病毒和抗菌等药物活性在药物化学领域引起广泛关注。利用其独特的结构可修饰性特点,可引入不同种类有机或无机基团,合成多种功能性化合物。研究人员对于合成高效低毒的多金属氧酸盐药物,阐明其药物作用机制做出了大量的研究工作。本文概述了近年来有机或有机金属多金属氧酸盐衍生物的抗肿瘤研究,重点阐述了多金属氧酸盐的抗肿瘤机制及生物学效应,包括氧化还原理论、核酸降解、诱导凋亡、诱导自噬性死亡、以及对机体免疫的影响,并展望了多金属氧酸盐抗肿瘤研究的发展方向。

Polyoxometalates have attracted much attention in the field of medicine because of their good bioactivities, including antitumor, antibacterial and antivirus activities. With its unique characteristics in structure, polyoxometalates could be modified by introducing different types of organic or inorganic groups into their structure, to improve their stability and bioactivity. The synthesis of new polyoxometalates with high bioactivities and low toxicity is an issue widely studied. This paper reviews studies of polyoxometalates derivatives, the antitumor mechanism and the biological effects of polyoxometalates in recent years. Organic and organometallic derivatives have remarkable antitumor activities against several types of tumor cells. According to the oxidation-reduction theory, the antitumor activity of polyoxometalates is related with the oxidation-reduction property of polyanions, and the theory is well supported by many evidences. However, the nucleic acid degradation effect observed in the in vitro implies that polyoxometalates could suppress tumor growth by the interaction with DNA or RNA. Moreover, it is found that polyoxometalates have effects on apoptosis, autophagic cell death and the immune system in the process of tumor inhibition, where the apoptosis effect plays an important role in the antitumor activity of polyoxometalates.