The exploration on metal complex-nucleic acid interactions plays key roles not only in rational design of both new metal-based anticancer drugs and effective hydrolytic cleaving agents of nucleic acids, but also in development of specific recognition probes of nucleic acid structures. Currently, the metal complex-nucleic acid interactions are being introduced into cell biological studies. For example, the intracellular localization imaging methods of nuclear and mitochondrial DNAs are being developed based on the DNA binding of ruthenium(Ⅱ) complexes. The effects of metal complex binding to nucleic acids on intracellular signal transduction and epigenetic inheritance have attracted a good deal of attention. The metal complexes that may act as nonviral nucleic acid carriers are being designed on the basis of their ability to condense nucleic acids. We review the important advances in investigation on the intracellular metal complex-nucleic acid interactions by utilization of typical cases.

Contents
1 Introduction
2 Metal complexes used as localization imaging agents of nuclear and mitochondrial DNAs
3 Effects of nucleic acid-metal complex interactions on intracellular signal transduction
4 Nucleic acid-metal complex interactions and epigenetic inheritance
5 Metal complexes used as nonviral nucleic acid carriers
6 Outlook