Biological Applications of Thiocarbohydrazones and Their Metal Complexes: A Perspective Review

Abstract

Although organic compounds account for more than 99% of currently approved clinical drugs, the established clinical use of cisplatin in cancer or auranofin in rheumatoid arthritis have paved the way to several research initiatives to identify metal-based drugs for a wide range of human diseases. Nitrogen and sulfur donor ligands, characterized by different binding motifs, have been the subject in recent years of one of the main research areas in coordination chemistry. Among the nitrogen/sulfur compounds, very little is known about thiocarbohydrazones (TCH), the higher homologues of the well-known thiosemicarbazones (TSC), and their metal complexes. The extra hydrazine moiety provides the ligands of variable metal binding modes, structural diversity and promising biological implications. The interesting coordination chemistry of TCH has mainly been focused on symmetric derivatives, which are relatively simple to synthesize while few examples of asymmetric ligands have been reported. This informative review on TCHs and their metal complexes will be helpful for improving the design of metal-based pharmaceuticals for applications ranging from anticancer to antinfective therapy.

Characterization and Release Behavior of a Thiosemicarbazone from Electrospun Polyvinyl Alcohol Core-Shell Nanofibers

“…Thiosemicarbazones (TSCs) and their metal complexes are versatile molecules with a wide spectrum of antimicrobial, antitrypanosomal, antitumor, antimalarial, and antiviral activities and have been studied intensely in pharmaceutical and medicinal chemistry [ 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 ]. TSCs are able to block the genetic expression of wide variety of viruses [ 11 , 13 ], including the herpes simplex virus [ 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 ].…”

A New Photoactivatable Ruthenium(II) Complex with an Asymmetric Bis-Thiocarbohydrazone: Chemical and Biological Investigations

“…To afford a double functionalization in the monodentate ligand, we decided to design an asymmetric thiocarbohydrazone. These kinds of compounds are already known to possess interesting biological properties [ 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 ], even if, unlike thiosemicarbazones, not many studies have been carried out to evaluate the biological activity of their metal complexes. In this way, the data available are few concerning the molecular basis and the biological pathways underlying their pharmacological activity [ 16 ].…”

Improvement in the Pharmacological Profile of Copper Biological Active Complexes by Their Incorporation into Organic or Inorganic Matrix

“…Many copper complexes were designed as versatile and reliable tools for developing biologically active compounds. The ligand structure and ability to both enhance the stability and regulate the non-covalent interactions with biomolecules were selected in order to finely tune the complexes’ desirable properties [ 29 ]. As a result, many copper complexes with potential therapeutic activities were developed.…”

“…As a result, many copper complexes with potential therapeutic activities were developed. The biological application of these complexes extends from enzyme inhibition or species with enzyme-like activity [ 30 , 31 , 32 , 33 ] to active species with antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory or antitumor activity [ 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 22 , 23 , 29 , 34 , 35 , 36 , 37 , 38 , 39 , 40 , 41 ], aspects presented in several reviews.…”