螯合疗法是一种通过使用金属螯合剂从人体器官和组织中去除有毒金属以及治疗疾病的医疗程序。例如，铁螯合疗法不仅用于治疗金属中毒，还用于治疗一些由铁过载、癌症化疗和相关疾病引起的疾病。然而，使用这些金属螯合剂需要非常谨慎，因为可能会出现由于与细胞内金属阳离子发生非特异性络合而引起的副作用。在本文中，我们报告了一些含有一个至三个bpy配体基团（bpy：2,2'-联吡啶）的新型聚(bpy)配体的制备和表征，以及它们对Jurkat、MOLT-4、U937、HeLa S3和A549细胞系的抗癌活性。MTT实验的结果显示，三(bpy)和二(bpy)配体对于诱导癌细胞死亡表现出强大的活性。机制研究表明，聚(bpy)配体通过凋亡性细胞死亡途径发挥了对细胞死亡的主要作用。还发现，聚(bpy)配体的抗癌活性可以通过与生物相关金属阳离子的配合（抗癌活性关闭）和解配（抗癌活性开启）进行调控。本文将对这些结果进行描述。

Chelation therapy is a medical procedure for removing toxic metals from human organs and tissues and for the treatment of diseases by using metal-chelating agents. For example, iron chelation therapy is designed not only for the treatment of metal poisoning but also for some diseases that are induced by iron overload, cancer chemotherapy, and related diseases. However, the use of such metal chelators needs to be generally carried out very carefully, because of the side effects possibly due to the non-specific complexation with intracellular metal cations. Herein, we report on the preparation and characterization of some new poly(bpy) ligands (bpy: 2,2'-bipyridyl) that contain one-three bpy ligand moieties and their anticancer activity against Jurkat, MOLT-4, U937, HeLa S3, and A549 cell lines. The results of MTT assays revealed that the tris(bpy) and bis(bpy) ligands exhibit potent activity for inducing the cell death in cancer cells. Mechanistic studies suggest that the main pathway responsible for the cell death by these poly(bpy) ligands is apoptotic cell death. It was also found that the anticancer activity of the poly(bpy) ligands could be controlled by the complexation (anticancer activity is turned OFF) and decomplexation (anticancer activity is turned ON) with biorelevant metal cations. In this paper, these results will be described.