Triphenylamine-Appended Half-Sandwich Iridium(III) Complexes and Their Biological Applications

Xiangdong He; Meng Tian; Xicheng Liu; Yanhua Tang; Chang Fang Shao; Peiwei Gong; Jinfeng Liu; Shumiao Zhang; Lihua Guo; Zhe Liu

doi:10.1002/asia.201800103

Triphenylamine-Appended Half-Sandwich Iridium(III) Complexes and Their Biological Applications

Chem Asian J. 2018 Jun 4;13(11):1500-1509. doi: 10.1002/asia.201800103. Epub 2018 May 15.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Anticancer Agents Development and Theranostic Application, The Key Laboratory of Life-Organic Analysis and Key Laboratory of Pharmaceutical Intermediates and Analysis of Natural Medicine, Department of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Qufu Normal University, Qufu, 273165, China.
² Qufu Normal University, School of Life Science, Qufu, 273165, China.

PMID: 29645357
DOI: 10.1002/asia.201800103

Abstract

Organometallic half-sandwich Ir^III complexes of the type [(η⁵ -Cp^x )Ir(N^N)Cl]PF₆ (Cp^x : Cp* or its phenyl Cp^xph or biphenyl Cp^xbiph derivatives; N^N: triphenylamine (TPA)-substituted bipyridyl ligand groups) were synthesized and characterized. The complexes showed excellent bovine serum albumin (BSA) and DNA binding properties and were able to oxidize NADH to NAD⁺ (NAD=nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide) efficiently. The complexes induced apoptosis effectively and led to the emergence of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in cells. All complexes showed potent cytotoxicity with IC₅₀ values ranging from 1.5 to 7.1 μm toward A549 human lung cancer cells after 24 hours of drug exposure, which is up to 14 times more potent than cisplatin under the same conditions.

Keywords: DNA; apoptosis; cancer; iridium; sandwich complexes.