Recent development of gold(I) and gold(III) complexes as therapeutic agents for cancer diseases

Metal complexes have demonstrated significant antitumor activities and platinum complexes are well established in the clinical application of cancer chemotherapy. However, the platinum-based treatment of different types of cancers is massively hampered by severe side effects and resistance development. Consequently, the development of novel metal-based drugs with different mechanism of action and pharmaceutical profile attracts modern medicinal chemists to design and synthesize novel metal-based agents. Among non-platinum anticancer drugs, gold complexes have gained considerable attention due to their significant antiproliferative potency and efficacy. In most situations, the gold complexes exhibit anticancer activities by targeting thioredoxin reductase (TrxR) or other thiol-rich proteins and enzymes and trigger cell death via reactive oxygen species (ROS). Interestingly, gold complexes were recently reported to elicit biochemical hallmarks of immunogenic cell death (ICD) as an ICD inducer. In this review, the recent progress of gold(I) and gold(III) complexes is comprehensively summarized, and their activities and mechanism of action are documented.

A "Golden Age" for the discovery of new antileishmanial agents: Current status of leishmanicidal gold complexes and prospective targets beyond the trypanothione system

Leishmaniasis is one of the most neglected diseases worldwide and is considered a serious public health issue. The current therapeutic options have several disadvantages that make the search for new therapeutics urgent. Gold compounds are emerging as promising candidates based on encouraging in vitro and limited in vivo results for several Au^I and Au^III complexes. The antiparasitic mechanisms of these molecules remain only partially understood. However, a few studies have proposed the trypanothione redox system as a target, similar to the mammalian thioredoxin system, pointed out as the main target for several gold compounds with significant antitumor activity. In this review, we present the current status of the investigation and design of gold compounds directed at treating leishmaniasis. In addition, we explore potential targets in Leishmania parasites beyond the trypanothione system, taking into account previous studies and structure modulation performed for gold-based compounds.

Thioredoxin reductase inhibitors: updated patent review (2017-present)

Introduction: Thioredoxin reductase (TrxR) is a selenocysteine-containing enzyme which is responsible - as a part of the thioredoxin system - for maintaining redox homeostasis in cells. It is upregulated in cancerous state as a defense against oxidative stress. TrxR has been mostly considered an anticancer drug target although it has applications in other therapeutic areas such as neurodegeneration, inflammation, microbial infections, and neonatal hyperoxic lung injury.Areas covered: The present review covers the patent literature that appeared in the period 2017-2020, i.e. since the publication of the previous expert opinion patent review on TrxR inhibitors. The recent additions to the following traditional classes of inhibitors are discussed: metal complexes, Michael acceptors as well as arsenic and selenium compounds. At the same time, a novel group of nitro (hetero)aromatic compounds have emerged which likely acts via covalent inhibition mechanism. Several miscellaneous chemotypes are grouped under Miscellaneous subsection.Expert opinion: While specificity over glutathione reductase is achieved easily, TrxR is still moving toward the later stages of development at a very slow rate. Michael acceptors, particularly based on TRXR substrate-mimicking scaffolds, are gaining impetus and so are dual and hybrid compounds. The development prospects of the emerging nitro (hetero)aromatic chemotypes remain uncertain.

Novel Anticancer NHC*-Gold(I) Complexes Inspired by Lepidiline A

N-Heterocyclic carbene gold(I) complexes derived from 1,3-dibenzyl-4,5-diphenylimidazol-2-ylidene (NHC*) represent a promising class of anticancer drugs. Complexes of the type NHC*-Au-L (L = Br⁻, I⁻, C≡C-R) and [NHC*-Au-L]⁺ (L = NHC*, PPh₃) have been synthesised. The X-ray crystal structures of all gold(I) complexes are presented; aurophilic interactions were observed in five of the complexes. The anticancer activity was assessed via MTT (3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide)-based proliferation assays against the human colon carcinoma cell line HCT-116^wt and the multidrug-resistant human breast carcinoma cell line MCF-7^topo. Most complexes showed good cytotoxicity with IC₅₀ values in the low micromolar range, while excellent sub-micromolar activity was observed for 2c, 3a and 3b. Generally, the activity of the ligands studied was as follows: carbene > phosphine > alkyne > halide, with an exception for the highly active iodido derivative 2c.

Synthesis, characterization and anticancer activity in vitro evaluation of novel dicyanoaurate (I)-based complexes

Molecular structures containing gold, such as auranofin, have been extensively studied in the diagnosis and treatment of many diseases, including cancer treatment. The pharmacological properties of the newly synthesized unique gold-ligand structures have been reported for different cancer cell lines. However, findings on bishydeten-metal salt complexes with gold are rare. In this work, the synthesis of five novel cyanide-bridged coordination compounds having the closed formulae [Ni(bishydeten)][Au(CN)₂]₂ (1), [Cu(bishydeten)][Au(CN)₂]₂ (2), [Zn(bishydeten)₂Au₃(CN)₄][Au₂(CN)₃] (3), [Cd(bishydeten)_0,5]₂[Au(CN)₂]₄.2H₂O (4), and [Cd(bishydeten)₂][Au(CN)₂]₂ (5) (where bisyhdeten = N,N-bis(2-hydroxyethyl)ethylene diamine), and their characterization by elemental, infrared, ESI-MS, X-ray (for 2) and thermic measurement methods were performed. Complexes 1 and 3 are thermally more stable than the other three complexes. For these, pharmacological adequacies were also tested. The nucleic acid and protein binding affinities of the Au (I) compounds were also estimated by spectroscopic and electrophoretic techniques. Au (I) complexes were identified as strong chemotherapeutic with mild cytotoxicity, and they demonstrated a dose-dependent inhibition on the growth of cancer cells with IC50 at 0.11 to 0.47 μM. Investigation of mechanisms of action on cells revealed that Au (I) compounds managed to inhibit cell migration and led to a decrease in cytoskeletal proteins such as CK7 and CK20. However, Au (I) compounds failed to inhibit DNA topoisomerase I. Overall, and we suggest that potent antiproliferative activity, mild cytotoxicity, good solubility, and micromolar dosage of Au (I) compounds containing bisyhdeten-metal derivatives render them the potential focus of further studies as chemotherapeutic agents.