Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Metal-NHC complexes: a survey of anti-cancer properties

2009; Royal Society of Chemistry; Issue: 35 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1039/b906308k

1477-9234

Marie‐Laure Teyssot, Anne‐Sophie Jarrousse, M. Manin, Aurélien Chevry, Stéphane P. Roche, Frédéric Norre, Claude Beaudoin, Laurent Morel, Damien Boyer, Rachid Mahiou, Arnaud Gautier,

Catalytic Cross-Coupling Reactions

New weapons to fight cancer are constantly needed. Among chemotherapeutics, anti-cancer metal-drugs have enjoyed a long and successful history since the discovery of the benchmark cisplatin. Advances in metal-drug discovery have motivated chemists to build plethora of complex structures. Among them, a novel area is emerging. This article presents a survey of the metal-N-Heterocyclic Carbenes (Ag(I), Au(I), Pd(II) and Cu(I)-NHCs) as potential anti-cancer agents. Most of the metal-NHCs considered display higher cytotoxicities than the reference metallo-drug cisplatin. Some of them are even selective for particular cell lines. Their mechanisms of action at the cellular level are further discussed, showing that the nature of the metal is of great importance. All these promising results demonstrate that this approach deserves more attention and work.