Design of Surface-Modified Electrodes for the Electrochemical Adsorption of Platinum-Based Anticancer Drugs

The design of a hemofiltration method that minimizes the side effects produced by the accumulation of Pt-based drugs such as cisplatin represents an important technology for cancer treatment. This work establishes the foundation for the development of an efficient platform for the electrochemical hemofiltration and simultaneous sensing of antitumor drugs, such as cisplatin and carboplatin, from physiological medium. The electrochemical filtration system is based on a gold surface-modified electrode using tris(carboxyethyl)phosphine ligands as scavengers of the Pt-based drug complexes. The platinum–phosphine interaction is shown to be more time efficient, as compared to the naturally occurring form of a glutathione–platinum adduct, and displayed a highly cooperative nature of binding. Altogether, we demonstrate that the presence of ligands capable of binding to Pt results in a differential spectroscopic and electrochemical response and the potential to adsorb and monitor the concentration of Pt salts in complex aqueous media.