Developing central nervous system and vulnerability to platinum compounds.

Comparative studies on the effects of the platinum complexes in use or in clinical trials are carried out in order to discover differences in the neurotoxic potential and the reversibility of neurotoxicity. In this paper, we summarized the current literature on neurotoxicity and chemoresistance of cisplatin (cisPt) and discussed our recent efforts on the interference of cisPt and a new platinum compound [Pt(O,O'-acac)(γ-acac)(DMS)] (PtAcacDMS), with high specific reactivity with sulphur ligands instead of nucleobases as cisPt, on some crucial events of rat postnatal cerebellum development. The acute effects of drug treatments on cell proliferation and death in the external granular layer and granule cell migration and the late effects on the dendrite growth of Purkinje cells were evaluated. Together with the demonstrated antineoplastic effectiveness in vitro, compared with cisPt, data suggest a lower neurotoxicity of PtAcacDMS, in spite of its presence in the brain that involves considerations on the blood brain barrier permeability.