Hydrosulfide Adducts of Organo-Iridium Anticancer Complexes

Half-Sandwich Organometallic Ir(III) and Ru(II) Compounds and their Interactions with Biomolecules

This review highlights how a Ir(III) and Ru(II) coordination complexes can change theirs cytotoxic activity by interacting with a biomolecules such as deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), human albumins (HSA), nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NADH), and glutathione (GSH). We have selected biomolecules (DNA, NADH, GSH, and HSA) based on their significant biological roles and importance in cellular processes. Moreover, this review may provide useful information for the development of new half-sandwich Ir(III) and Ru(II) complexes with desired properties and relevant biological activities. Additionally, the examples discussed here may help us better understand what happens to a metal-based drug once it enters the body.

Anticancer iridium(iii) cyclopentadienyl complexes

A comprehensive review of anticancer iridium(iii) cyclopentadienyl complexes, including a critical discussion of structure–activity relationships and mechanisms of action, is provided.

Iminoamido chelated iridium(III) and ruthenium(II) anticancer complexes with mitochondria-targeting ability and potential to overcome cisplatin resistance

A diverse set of neutral half-sandwich iminoamido iridium and ruthenium organometallic complexes is synthesized through the utilization of Schiff base pro-ligands with N˄N donors. Notably, these metal complexes with varying leaving groups (Cl- or OAc-) are formed by employing different quantities of the deprotonating agent NaOAc, and exhibit promising cytotoxicity against various cancer cell lines such as A549 and cisplatin-resistant A549/DDP lung cancer cells, as well as HeLa cells, with IC50 values spanning from 9.26 to 15.98 μM. Cytotoxicity and anticancer selectivity (SI: 1.9-2.4) of these metal complexes remain unaffected by variations in the metal center, leaving group, and ligand substitution. Further investigations reveal that these metal complexes specifically target mitochondria, leading to the depolarization of the mitochondrial membrane and instigating the production of intracellular reactive oxygen species. Furthermore, the metal complexes are found to induce late apoptosis and disrupt the cell cycle, leading to G2/M cell cycle arrest specifically in A549 cancer cells. In light of these findings, it is evident that the primary mechanism contributing to the anticancer effectiveness of these metal complexes is the redox pathway.

Metallodrugs are unique: opportunities and challenges of discovery and development

Metals play vital roles in nutrients and medicines and provide chemical functionalities that are not accessible to purely organic compounds. At least 10 metals are essential for human life and about 46 other non-essential metals (including radionuclides) are also used in drug therapies and diagnostic agents. These include platinum drugs (in 50% of cancer chemotherapies), lithium (bipolar disorders), silver (antimicrobials), and bismuth (broad-spectrum antibiotics). While the quest for novel and better drugs is now as urgent as ever, drug discovery and development pipelines established for organic drugs and based on target identification and high-throughput screening of compound libraries are less effective when applied to metallodrugs. Metallodrugs are often prodrugs which undergo activation by ligand substitution or redox reactions, and are multi-targeting, all of which need to be considered when establishing structure-activity relationships. We focus on early-stage in vitro drug discovery, highlighting the challenges of evaluating anticancer, antimicrobial and antiviral metallo-pharmacophores in cultured cells, and identifying their targets. We highlight advances in the application of metal-specific techniques that can assist the preclinical development, including synchrotron X-ray spectro(micro)scopy, luminescence, and mass spectrometry-based methods, combined with proteomic and genomic (metallomic) approaches. A deeper understanding of the behavior of metals and metallodrugs in biological systems is not only key to the design of novel agents with unique mechanisms of action, but also to new understanding of clinically-established drugs.

Ligand-centred redox activation of inert organoiridium anticancer catalysts

Organometallic complexes with novel activation mechanisms are attractive anticancer drug candidates. Here, we show that half-sandwich iodido cyclopentadienyl iridium(iii) azopyridine complexes exhibit potent antiproliferative activity towards cancer cells, in most cases more potent than cisplatin. Despite their inertness towards aquation, these iodido complexes can undergo redox activation by attack of the abundant intracellular tripeptide glutathione (GSH) on the chelated azopyridine ligand to generate paramagnetic intermediates, and hydroxyl radicals, together with thiolate-bridged dinuclear iridium complexes, and liberate reduced hydrazopyridine ligand. DFT calculations provided insight into the mechanism of this activation. GS- attack on the azo bond facilitates the substitution of iodide by GS-, and leads to formation of GSSG and superoxide if O2 is present as an electron-acceptor, in a largely exergonic pathway. Reactions of these iodido complexes with GSH generate Ir-SG complexes, which are catalysts for GSH oxidation. The complexes promoted elevated levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in human lung cancer cells. This remarkable ligand-centred activation mechanism coupled to redox reactions adds a new dimension to the design of organoiridium anticancer prodrugs.

Hydrosulfide complexes of the transition elements: diverse roles in bioinorganic, cluster, coordination, and organometallic chemistry

Molecules containing transition metal hydrosulfide linkages are diverse, spanning a variety of elements, coordination environments, and redox states, and carrying out multiple roles across several fields of chemistry.

Intracellular Catalysis with Selected Metal Complexes and Metallic Nanoparticles: Advances toward the Development of Catalytic Metallodrugs

Platinum-containing drugs (e.g., cisplatin) are among the most frequently used chemotherapeutic agents. Their tremendous success has spurred research and development of other metal-based drugs, with notable achievements. Generally, the vast majority of metal-based drug candidates in clinical and developmental stages are stoichiometric agents, i.e., each metal complex reacts only once with their biological target. Additionally, many of these metal complexes are involved in side reactions, which not only reduce the effective amount of the drug but may also cause toxicity. On a separate note, transition metal complexes and nanoparticles have a well-established history of being potent catalysts for selective molecular transformations, with examples such as the Mo- and Ru-based catalysts for metathesis reactions (Nobel Prize in 2005) or palladium catalysts for C-C bond forming reactions such as Heck, Negishi, or Suzuki reactions (Nobel Prize in 2010). Also, notably, no direct biological equivalent of these transformations exists in a biological environment such as bacteria or mammalian cells. It is, therefore, only logical that recent interest has focused on developing transition-metal based catalytic systems that are capable of performing transformations inside cells, with the aim of inducing medicinally relevant cellular changes. Because unlike in stoichiometric reactions, a catalytically active compound may turn over many substrate molecules, only very small amounts of such a catalytic metallodrug are required to achieve a desired pharmacologic effect, and therefore, toxicity and side reactions are reduced. Furthermore, performing catalytic reactions in biological systems also opens the door for new methodologies to study the behavior of biomolecules in their natural state, e.g., via in situ labeling or by increasing/depleting their concentration at will. There is, of course, an art to the choice of catalysts and reactions which have to be compatible with biological conditions, namely an aqueous, oxygen-containing environment. In this review, we aim to describe new developments that bring together the far-distant worlds of transition-metal based catalysis and metal-based drugs, in what is termed "catalytic metallodrugs". Here we will focus on transformations that have been performed on small biomolecules (such as shifting equilibria like in the NAD⁺/NADH or GSH/GSSG couples), on non-natural molecules such as dyes for imaging purposes, or on biomacromolecules such as proteins. Neither reactions involving release (e.g., CO) or transformation of small molecules (e.g., ¹O₂ production), degradation of biomolecules such as proteins, RNA or DNA nor light-induced medicinal chemistry (e.g., photodynamic therapy) are covered, even if metal complexes are centrally involved in those. In each section, we describe the (inorganic) chemistry involved, as well as selected examples of biological applications in the hope that this snapshot of a new but quickly developing field will indeed inspire novel research and unprecedented interactions across disciplinary boundaries.

Iridium porphyrin complexes with μ-nitrido, hydroxo, hydrosulfido and alkynyl ligands

Iridium porphyrin complexes containing μ-nitrido, hydroxo, hydrosulfido, and alkynyl ligands have been synthesized and structurally characterized, and their oxidation has been studied. The alkyl-IrIII porphyrin complex [Ir(tpp)R] (tpp2- = 5,10,15,20-tetraphenylporphyrin dianion; R = C8H13; 1) was synthesized by reaction of [Ir(cod)Cl]2 (cod = 1,5-cyclooctadiene) with H2tpp in refluxing monoethylene glycol. Treatment of 1 with PPh3 and [(LOEt)Ru(N)Cl2] (LOEt- = [(η5-C5H5)Co{P(O)(OEt)2}3]-) gave [Ir(tpp)(R)(PPh3)] (2) and the μ-nitrido complex [R(tpp)Ir(μ-N)RuCl2(LOEt)] (3), respectively. The cyclic voltammogram of 3 exhibited a reversible oxidation couple at 0.44 V versus Fc+/0 (Fc = ferrocene). The oxidation of 3 with [(4-BrC6H4)3N](SbCl6) resulted in Ir-C bond homolysis and formation of the chloride complex [Cl(tpp)Ir(μ-N)RuCl2(LOEt)] (4). The short Ir-N(nitrido) bond distances in 3 [1.944(3) Å] and 4 [1.831(4) Å] are indicative of multiple bond character and thus these two μ-nitrido complexes can be described by the two resonance forms: IrIII-N[triple bond, length as m-dash]RuVI and IrV[double bond, length as m-dash]N[double bond, length as m-dash]RuIV. Similarly, the oxidation of 2 with [(4-BrC6H4)3N](SbCl6) yielded [Ir(tpp)Cl(PPh3)] (5). Chloride abstraction of 5 with TlPF6 in tetrahydrofuran (thf) afforded [Ir(tpp)(PPh3)(thf)](PF6) (6) that reacted with CsOH·H2O and Li2S to give the hydroxo [Ir(tpp)(OH)(PPh3)] (7) and hydrosulfido [Ir(tpp)(PPh3)(SH)] (8) complexes, respectively. Treatment of 6 with phenylacetylene in the presence of CuI and Et3N yielded the bimetallic complex [Ir(tpp)(PPh3)(μ-η1:η2-C[triple bond, length as m-dash]CPh)(CuI)] (9), whereas the transmetallation of 6 with LiC[triple bond, length as m-dash]CPh afforded the mononuclear alkynyl complex [Ir(tpp)(PPh3)(C[triple bond, length as m-dash]CPh)] (10). The electrochemistry of the Ir porphyrin complexes has been studied using cyclic voltammetry. On the basis of the measured redox potentials of [Ir(tpp)(PPh3)X], the ability of X- to stabilize the IrIV state is ranked in the order: R- > PhC[triple bond, length as m-dash]C- > Cl- ∼ OH-. Oxidation of 8 and 9 with [(4-BrC6H4)3N](SbCl6) led to isolation of 5 and [Ir(tpp)(PPh3)(H2O)]+, respectively. The crystal structures of complexes 3, 4, and 7-10 have been determined.

Organometallic Conjugates of the Drug Sulfadoxine for Combatting Antimicrobial Resistance

Fourteen novel arene Ru^II , and cyclopentadienyl (Cp^x ) Rh^III and Ir^III complexes containing an N,N'-chelated pyridylimino- or quinolylimino ligand functionalized with the antimalarial drug sulfadoxine have been synthesized and characterized, including three by X-ray crystallography. The rhodium and iridium complexes exhibited potent antiplasmodial activity with IC₅₀ values of 0.10-2.0 μm in either all, or one of the three Plasmodium falciparum assays (3D7 chloroquine sensitive, Dd2 chloroquine resistant and NF54 sexual late stage gametocytes) but were only moderately active towards Trichomonas vaginalis. They were active in both the asexual blood stage and the sexual late stage gametocyte assays, whereas the clinical parent drug, sulfadoxine, was inactive. Five complexes were moderately active against Mycobacterium tuberculosis (IC₅₀ <6.3 μm), while sulfadoxine showed no antitubercular activity. An increase in the size of both the Cp^x ligand and the aromatic imino substituent increased hydrophobicity, which resulted in an increase in antiplasmodial activity.

Highly potent half-sandwich iridium and ruthenium complexes as lysosome-targeted imaging and anticancer agents

A new class of half-sandwich Ir and Ru compounds containing P^P-chelating ligands can be developed as potential multifunctional theranostic platforms that combine bioimaging and anticancer capabilities.

Electronic effects on reactivity and anticancer activity by half-sandwich N,N-chelated iridium(iii) complexes

This work demonstrated how the chemical reactivity and anticancer activity as well as the selectivity of these half-sandwich N,N-chelated iridium(iii) complexes can be controlled and fine-tuned by the modification of the ligand electronic perturbations.

Self-Assembly of Discrete RuII8 Molecular Cages and Their in Vitro Anticancer Activity

Four new octanuclear Ru(II) cages (OC-1-OC-4) were synthesized from dinuclear p-cymene ruthenium(II) acceptors [Ru₂(μ-η⁴-C₂O₄)(CH₃OH)₂(η⁶-p-cymene)₂](O₃SCF₃)₂ (A₁), [Ru₂(μ-η⁴-C₆H₂O₄)(CH₃OH)₂(η⁶-p-cymene)₂](O₃SCF₃)₂ (A₂), [Ru₂(dhnq)(H₂O)₂(η⁶-p-cymene)₂](O₃SCF₃)₂ (A₃), and [Ru₂(dhtq)(H₂O)₂(η⁶-p-cymene)₂](O₃SCF₃)₂ (A₄) separately with a tetradentate pyridyl ligand (L₁) in methanol using coordination-driven self-assembly [L₁= N,N,N',N'-tetra(pyridin-4-yl)benzene-1,4-diamine]. The octanuclear cages are fully characterized by various spectroscopic techniques including single-crystal X-ray diffraction analysis of OC-4. The self-assembled cages show strong in vitro anticancer activity against human lung adenocarcinoma A549 and human cervical cancer HeLa cell lines as observed from the 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide assay. Of all the octanuclear cages, OC-3 exhibits remarkable anticancer activity against both cancer cell lines and is more active than that reported for cisplatin. The excellent anticancer activity of OC-3 and OC-4 highlights the importance of the synergistic effects of the spacer component of the dinuclear p-cymene Ru(II) acceptor clips.