Oxidation of diselenide bond with sodiumtetracloroaurate (III): Significance in chemotherapy

Gold(III) reacts with selenocystamine (diselenide) and immediately breaks the diselenide-bond as observed by 13C NMR spectroscopy. It is also observed that diselenide is more reactive to gold(III) compare to its analogous disulfide (cystamine) molecule. The results are compared with similar diselenide and disulfide molecule with other gold(I) drugs.