The Anticancer Activity of Indazole Compounds: A Mini Review

The incidence and mortality of cancer continue to grow since the current medical treatments often fail to produce a complete and durable tumor response and ultimately give rise to therapy resistance and tumor relapse. Heterocycles with potential therapeutic values are of great pharmacological importance, and among them, indazole moiety is a privileged structure in medicinal chemistry. Indazole compounds possess potential anticancer activity, and indazole-based agents such as, axitinib, lonidamine and pazopanib have already been employed for cancer therapy, demonstrating indazole compounds as useful templates for the development of novel anticancer agents. The aim of this review is to present the main aspects of exploring anticancer properties, such as the structural modifications, the structure-activity relationship and mechanisms of action, making an effort to highlight the importance and therapeutic potential of the indazole compounds in the present anticancer agents.

Synthesis, Crystal Structures and Anticancer Studies of Morpholinyldithiocarbamato Cu(II) and Zn(II) Complexes

Cu(II) and Zn(II) morpholinyldithiocarbamato complexes, formulated as [Cu(MphDTC)₂] and [Zn(μ-MphDTC)₂(MphDTC)₂], where MphDTC is morpholinyldithiocarbamate were synthesized and characterized by elemental analysis, spectroscopic techniques and single-crystal X-ray crystallography. The molecular structure of the Cu(II) complex revealed a mononuclear compound in which the Cu(II) ion was bonded to two morpholinyl dithiocarbamate ligands to form a four-coordinate distorted square planar geometry. The molecular structure of the Zn(II) complex was revealed to be dinuclear, and each metal ion was bonded to two morpholinyl dithiocarbamate bidentate anions, one acting as chelating ligand, the other as a bridge between the two Zn(II) ions. The anticancer activity of the morpholinyldithiocarbamate ligand, Cu(II) and Zn(II) complexes were evaluated against renal (TK10), melanoma (UACC62) and breast (MCF7) cancer cells by a Sulforhodamine B (SRB) assay. Morpholinyldithiocarbamate was more active than the standard drug parthenolide against renal and breast cancer cell lines, and [Zn(μ-MphDTC)₂(MphDTC)₂] was the most active complex against breast cancer. The copper(II) complex had a comparable activity with the standard against renal and breast cancer cell lines but showed an enhanced potency against melanoma when compared to parthenolide.

Ruthenium (II) complexes with N, O-chelating proline and threonine ligands cause selective cytotoxicity by the induction of genomic instability, cell cycle arrest and apoptosis in breast and prostate tumor cells

Ruthenium complexes are being considered as novel chemotherapeutic alternatives for cancer treatment. In our study, we assessed the antitumoral activities of novel ruthenium complexes coupled to the amino acids proline (RuPro) and threonine (RuThr) in prostate tumor cell lines (DU145) and breast (MCF7), and normal cell lines of the lung fibroblast (GM07492A). Our results revealed that the EC₅₀ of the complexes for DU145 and MCF7 was two times lower than that GM07492A. Moreover, RuPro and RuThr were not able to induce significant genomic instability, cell cycle arrest or cell death in GM07492A, but could induce DNA damage, arrest in G2/M and apoptosis in DU145 and MCF7. Furthermore, BAX, TP53 and ATM were found to be upregulated in DU145 and MCF7 treated with RuPro and RuThr, in which, a higher ASCT2 gene expression was also observed. Using molecular docking, RuPro and RuThr interact with ASCT2, suggesting that this transporter might have a pivotal role in the execution of their activities. Hence, our results with RuPro and RuThr are capable of selectively inducing genetic damage, cell cycle arrest and apoptosis in DU145 and MCF7. We suggest that the selective action of the RuPro and RuThr complexes is related to the higher expression of ASCT2 in the tumor cells.

Ruthenium(II) Complexes as Potential Apoptosis Inducers in Cancer Therapy

The compound cis-diamminedichloroplatinum(II) (cisplatin) is the most widely used anticancer drug, but due to its serious side effects (including gastrointestinal symptoms, renal tubular injury, neuromuscular complications, and ototoxicity), clinical applications of cisplatin are limited. Therefore, these limitations have provided an encouragement for further research into other transition metal complexes, with an aim to overcome the disadvantages related with cisplatin therapy. In the search for effective complexes that can be targeted against tumor cells, many research groups synthesized various ruthenium( II) complexes with different ligands. Also, newly synthesized ruthenium(II) complexes showed selective anticancer activity against different types of cancer cells. Activity of ruthenium(II) complexes in some cases was even higher than that of cisplatin against the same cells. Precise mechanism of action of ruthenium(II) complexes is not fully understood. The different examples mentioned in this review showed that ruthenium(II) complexes decreased viability of cancer cells by induction of apoptosis and/or by cell cycle arrest which implies their different mechanism of action against different types of cancer cells.

Structural Determination of Ruthenium Complexes Containing Bi-Dentate Pyrrole-Ketone Ligands

A series of ruthenium compounds containing a pyrrole-ketone bidentate ligand, 2-(2′-methoxybenzoyl)pyrrole (1), have been synthesized and characterized. Reacting 1 with [(η⁶-cymene)RuCl₂]₂ and RuHCl(CO)(PPh₃)₃ generated Ru(η⁶-cymene)[C₄H₃N-2-(CO-C₆H₄-2-OMe)]Cl (2) and {RuCl(CO)(PPh₃)₂[C₄H₃N-2-(COC₆H₄-2-OMe)]} (3), respectively, in moderate yields. Successively reacting 2 with sodium cyanate and sodium azide gave {Ru(η⁶-cymene)[C₄H₃N-2-(CO-C₆H₄-2-OMe)]X} (4, X=OCN; 5, X=N₃) with the elimination of sodium chloride. Compounds 2–5 were all characterized by ¹H and ¹³C-NMR spectra and their structures were also determined by X-ray single crystallography.

Cytotoxic activity and structural features of Ru(II)/phosphine/amino acid complexes

Thirteen new ruthenium amino acid complexes were synthesized and characterized. They were obtained by the reaction of α-amino acids (AA) with [RuCl₂(P-P)(N-N)], where P-P=1,4-bis(diphenylphosphino)butane (dppb) or 1,3-bis(diphenylphosphino)propane (dppp) and N-N=4,4'-dimethyl-2,2'-bipyridine (4'-Mebipy), 5,5'-dimethyl-2,2'-bipyridine (5'-Mebipy) or 4,4'-Methoxy-2-2'-bipyridine (4'-MeObipy). This afforded a family of complexes formulated as [Ru(AA-H)(P-P)(N-N)]PF₆, where AA=glycine (Gly), L-alanine (Ala), L-valine (Val), L-tyrosine (Tyr), L-tryptophan (Trp), L-histidine (His) and L-methionine (Met). All compounds were characterized by elemental analysis, spectroscopic and electrochemical techniques. The [Ru(AA-H)(P-P)(N-N)]PF₆ complexes are octahedral (the AA-H ligand binding involves N-amine and O-carboxylate), diamagnetic (low-spin d⁶, S=0) and present bands due to electronic transitions in the visible region. ¹H, ¹³C{¹H} and ³¹P{¹H} NMR spectra of the complexes indicate the presence of C₂ symmetry, and the identification of diastereoisomers. In vitro cytotoxicity assays of the compounds and cisplatin were carried out using MDA-MB-231 (human breast) tumor cell line and a non-tumor breast cell line (MCF-10A). Most complexes present promising results with IC₅₀ values comparable with the reference drug cisplatin and high selectivity indexes were found for the complexes containing L-Trp. The binding of two Ru-precursors of the type [RuCl₂(dppb)(NN)] (N-N=4'-MeObipy or 4'-Mebipy) to the blood transporter protein human serum albumin (HSA) was evaluated by fluorescence and circular dichroism spectroscopy. Both complexes bind HSA, probably in the hydrophobic pocket near Trp214, and the Ru-complex containing 4'-MeObipy shows higher affinity for HSA than the 4'-Mebipy one.