Medicinal gold compounds form tight adducts with the copper chaperone Atox-1: biological and pharmacological implications

Based on ESI-MS measurements, we show here that some representative cytotoxic gold(III) compounds produce stable adducts upon reaction with the copper chaperone Atox-1; notably, such adducts contain gold in the oxidation state +1. These findings are of interest to understand the intracellular metabolism of medicinal gold species and to develop new potent inhibitors of the copper trafficking system.