Recently, Gold(III) porphyrins have gained great interest as anticancer drugs not only for stability of gold(III), but also for the functionalization of porphyrin to allow bridging with another metal such as platinum(II). We report here, for the first time, the synthesis of three new bi-metal compounds containing gold(III) porphyrin conjugated to a platinum diamine moiety through malonate bridging to obtain enhanced cytotoxicity from both metals combined to the phototoxicity of the porphyrin. The three complexes differ by type of diamine ligands around platinum(II) which are ammonia (NH3), cyclohexane diamine (CyDA) and pyridine methyl amine (Py). The synthesis was carried out using complexation of activated malonic acid derivatives with aqua diamino-platinum(II) complexes and the products were characterized by IR, NMR, mass spectra and by elementary analysis. Cytotoxic activity of the conjugates was screened in both healthy and cancer cell lines, human fibroblast cells (FS-68) and human breast cancer cells (MCF-7), and was compared to the corresponding platinum(II) complexes. The cyclohexyldiamine (CyDA) derivative exhibited the most cytotoxic effect among the series. The results showed that gold(III)/Pt(II)conjugates are more potent by 2 to 5.6-fold than the corresponding platinum complexes. Moreover, the dyad AuP-PtCyDA is 18% more potent and also more selective towards cancer cells than the parent gold porphyrin substituted with malonic acid. On the other hand, the IC50 of dyad AuP-PtCyDA is 43% lower than that of AuTPP, but more selective towards healthy cells. Singlet oxygen measurements indicated that gold(III) porphyrin derivatives are poor oxygen sensitizers and cell death occurred potentially due to generation of others reactive oxygen species (ROS) upon reductive quenching of the gold porphyrin excited state. In addition, the increase in cancer cell death obtained after light irradiation is totally absent in healthy cells, demonstrating the specificity of this PDT treatment on cancer cells. Our findings imply that the incorporation of two different cytotoxic metals in the same molecule represents a remarkable cytotoxic effect compared to traditional homometallic Pt(II) drugs.
The combination of photodynamic therapy and chemotherapy is a promising strategy to enhance cancer therapeutic efficacy and reduce drug resistance. In this study two zinc(II) phthalocyanine-tin(IV) conjugates linked by a triethylene glycol chain were synthesized and characterized. In these complexes, the zinc(II) phthalocyanine was used as a potential photosensitizer for PDT and the tin complex was selected as cytostatic moiety. The two dyads composed of zinc(II) phthalocyanine and tin complexes exhibited high cytotoxicity, in absence of light stimulation, against MCF-7 human breast cancer cells with low LC50 values in the range of 0.016–0.453 µM. In addition, these complexes showed superior cytotoxicity than their mixture of equimolar component, accompanied with a higher activity towards cancer cells compared to human healthy fibroblasts. However, under irradiation of the zinc phthalocyanine unit (at 650 nm) no photodynamic activity could be detected, due to the most likely quenching of zinc(II) phthalocyanine singlet excited state by the nearby tin complex according to a photoinduced electron transfer process. This study demonstrates the potential of heterometallic anticancer chemotherapeutics composed of a zinc phthalocyanine and tin complex, and it highlights that the development of such conjugates requires that the sensitizer preserves its photophysical properties and in particular its singlet oxygen sensitization ability in the conjugate in order to combine the PDT activity with the cytotoxicity of the anticancer drug.
The discovery of novel anticancer chemotherapeutics is fundamental to treat cancer more efficiently. Towards this goal, two dyads consisting of a gold porphyrin appended to organotin(IV) entities were synthesized and...
Drug targeted delivery has become a top-priority in the world of medicine in order to develop more efficient and harmless therapeutic agents. This is important as a critical underlying problem...
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