Anticancer Ru II and Rh III Piano‐Stool Complexes that are Histone Deacetylase Inhibitors

Anticancer Half-Sandwich Rhodium(III) Complexes

Platinum-based anticancer drugs are most likely the most successful group of bioinorganic compounds. Their apparent disadvantages have led to the development of anticancer compounds of other noble metals, resulting in several ruthenium-based drugs which have entered clinical trials on oncological patients. Besides ruthenium, numerous rhodium complexes have been recently reported as highly potent antiproliferative agents against various human cancer cells, making them potential alternatives to Pt- and Ru-based metallodrugs. In this review, half-sandwich Rh(III) complexes are overviewed. Many representatives show higher in vitro potency than and different mechanisms of action (MoA) from the conventional anticancer metallodrugs (cisplatin in most cases) or clinically studied Ru drug candidates. Furthermore, some of the reviewed Rh(III) arenyl complexes are also anticancer in vivo. Pioneer anticancer organorhodium compounds as well as the recent advances in the field are discussed properly, and adequate attention is paid to their anticancer activity, solution behaviour and various processes connected with their MoA. In summary, this work summarizes the types of compounds and the most important biological results obtained in the field of anticancer half-sandwich Rh complexes.

The interaction of half-sandwich (η5-Cp*)Rh(III) cation with histidine containing peptides and their ternary species with (N,N) bidentate ligands

Our goal was to explore the possible interactions of the potential metallodrug (η⁵-Cp*)Rh(III) complexes with histidine containing biomolecules (peptides/proteins) in order to understand the most important thermodynamic factors influencing the biospeciation and biotransformation of (η⁵-Cp*)Rh(III) complexes. To this end, here we report systematic solution thermodynamic and solution structural study on the interaction of (η⁵-Cp*)Rh(III) cation with histidine containing peptides and their constituents ((N-methyl)imidazole, GGA-OH, GGH-OH, histidine-amide, HGG-OH, GHG-NH₂), based on extensive ¹H NMR, ESI-MS and potentiometric investigations. The comparative evaluation of our data indicated that (η⁵-Cp*)Rh(III) cation is able to induce the deprotonation of amide nitrogen well below pH 7. Consequently, at physiological pH the peptides are coordinated to Rh(III) by tridentate manner, with the participation of amide nitrogen. At pH 7.4 the (η⁵-Cp*)Rh(III) binding affinity of peptides follow the order GGA-OH < < GGH-OH < < histidine-amide < HGG-OH < GHG-NH₂, i.e. the observed binding strength essentially depends on the presence and position of histidine within the peptide sequence. We also performed computational study on the possible solution structures of complexes present at near physiological pH. At pH 7.4 all histidine containing peptides form ternary complexes with strongly coordinating (N,N) bidentate ligands (ethylenediamine or bipyridyl), in which the peptides are monodentately coordinated to Rh(III) through their imidazole N¹‑nitrogens. In addition, the strongest chelators histidine-amide, HGG-OH and GHG-NH₂ are also able to displace these powerful bidentate ligands from the coordination sphere of Rh(III).

Inhibition of histone deacetylases, topoisomerases and epidermal growth factor receptor by metal-based anticancer agents: Design & synthetic strategies and their medicinal attributes

Metal-based inhibitors of histone deacetylases (HDAC), DNA topoisomerases (Topos) and Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor (EGFR) have demonstrated their cytotoxic potential against various cancer types such as breast, lung, uterus, colon, etc. Additionally, these have proven their role in resolving the resistance issues, enhancing the affinity, lipophilicity, stability, and biocompatibility and therefore, emerged as potential candidates for molecularly targeted therapeutics. This review focusses on nature and role of metals and organic ligands in tuning the anticancer activity in multiple modes of inhibition considering HDACs, Topos or EGFR as one of the primary targets. The conceptual design and synthetic approaches of platinum and non-platinum metal complexes comprising of chiefly ruthenium, rhodium, palladium, copper, iron, nickel, cobalt, zinc metals coordinated with organic scaffolds, along with their biological activity profiles, structure-activity relationships (SARs), docking studies, possible modes of action, and their scope and limitations are discussed in detail.

Anticancer Ruthenium Complexes with HDAC Isoform Selectivity

The histone deacetylase (HDAC) enzymes have emerged as an important class of molecular targets in cancer therapy, with five inhibitors in clinical use. Recently, it has been shown that a lack of selectivity between the 11 Zn-dependent HDAC isoforms may lead to unwanted side-effects. In this paper, we show that piano stool Ru complexes can act as HDAC inhibitors, and variation in the capping arene leads to differences in HDAC isoform selectivity.

Zinc-Containing Metalloenzymes: Inhibition by Metal-Based Anticancer Agents

DNA is considered to be the primary target of platinum-based anticancer drugs which have gained great success in clinics, but DNA-targeted anticancer drugs cause serious side-effects and easily acquired drug resistance. This has stimulated the search for novel therapeutic targets. In the past few years, substantial research has demonstrated that zinc-containing metalloenzymes play a vital role in the occurrence and development of cancer, and they have been identified as alternative targets for metal-based anticancer agents. Metal complexes themselves have also exhibited a lot of appealing features for enzyme inhibition, such as: (i) the facile construction of 3D structures that can increase the enzyme-binding selectivity and affinity; (ii) the intriguing photophysical and photochemical properties, and redox activities of metal complexes can offer possibilities to design enzyme inhibitors with multiple modes of action. In this review, we discuss recent examples of zinc-containing metalloenzyme inhibition of metal-based anticancer agents, especially three zinc-containing metalloenzymes overexpressed in tumors, including histone deacetylases (HDACs), carbonic anhydrases (CAs), and matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs).

Bioactive Salen-type Schiff Base Transition Metal Complexes as Possible Anticancer Agents

Although metal-based anticancer drugs have been recognized as the most effective agents over the organic compounds, non-selectivity and high toxic effects have limited their applications in a way that only three Pt-analogues have progressed into clinical use. These problems have spurred chemists to develop different strategies based on alternative targets. This work focuses on predicting potency and mode of interactions of a series of salen type Schiff base transition metal complexes derived from meso-1,2-diphenyl-1,2-ethylenediamine, over some proteins (HDAC7, HDAC2, CatB, B-RAF kinase, TopII, RNR, TS, and rHA) using computational docking method, to be later considered as possible anticancer agents. The obtained results showed that all complexes exhibited higher affinity for HDAC7 than the other targets. Moreover, the bromo-derivatives of the copper compounds were more active on HDAC7 than the other derivatives. Such bromo compounds showed considerable interactions with Kinase, RNR, TS, and CatB. Contrary to Histone deacetylase (HAD)C7; HDAC2 was predicted to be relatively poor target. As expected, formation of the hydrophobic interactions between the metal complexes and the protein targets were essential for activity of the metal compounds. This study provides some more information for further optimizations and development of new metallodrugs as enzyme inhibitors for potential therapeutic agents.

Perfluorinated HDAC inhibitors as selective anticancer agents

A series of potent histone deacetylase inhibitors is presented that incorporate alkyl or perfluorinated alkyl chains. Several new compounds show greater in vitro antiproliferative activity than the clinically approved inhibitor, SAHA. Furthermore, the new compounds show up to 5-fold greater activity against cancer cells than healthy cells. This selectivity is in contrast to SAHA, which is more active against the healthy cell line than the cancer cell line tested. Finally, we report an increase in activity for SAHA under mild hyperthermia, indicating that it could be an interesting candidate to use in combination with thermal therapy.

Structural and solution equilibrium studies on half-sandwich organorhodium complexes of (N,N) donor bidentate ligands

Characterization, solution stability, chloride affinity and crystal structures of [Rh(η⁵-C₅Me₅)(N^N)(H₂O)]²⁺ complexes and their correlation analysis.

A potential method to improve the in vitro cytotoxicity of half-sandwich Os(ii) complexes against A2780 cells

[Os(η⁶-pcym)(dpa)(VP)]PF₆ (1-VP), containing the histone deacetylase inhibitor valproate, shows ca. 3-fold higher in vitro cytotoxicity against the A2780 human ovarian carcinoma cells than its chlorido analogue [Os(η⁶-pcym)(dpa)Cl]PF₆ (1-Cl).