Stable high-oxidation-state complex in situ Mn(V)–Mn(III) transition to achieve highly efficient cervical cancer therapy.

Designing metal complexes to target the vulnerable redox balance in cancer cells is a promising strategy to realize successful cancer therapy. The synthesized stable nitridomanganese(V) complex MnV(N) (salen) not only reacts with GSH to achieve in situ Mn(V)–Mn(III) transformation to down-regulate the antioxidant system, but also catalyzes H2O2 to higher oxidation capacity ROS to up-regulate the intracellular oxidative level, finally resulting in cancer cell death. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]