Inorganic Chemistry
Article
inhibit the cellular survival fraction to 50% are given in Table
water and DMSO−PBS solutions: UV−vis spectroscopic
studies confirmed the retention of a pincer structure in
solution over a prolonged period of time (120 h), with the only
1
.
Most of the complexes obtained exhibited significant
antiproliferative activity against all of the cancer cell lines
explored. The only exception was complex 8c (Table 1, entry
6
3
), which demonstrated moderate or even low cytotoxicity and
Supporting Information).
was inferior to the referencecisplatin (entry 13). In most of
the other cases, the compounds under consideration out-
performed this widely used chemotherapeutic agent. In some
cases, especially in the experiments with HCT116 and PC3
cells, the values of IC50 reached a low micromolar range (see,
for example, entries 1, 4, 10, and 12). As a rule, MCF7 breast
cancer cells appeared to be less sensitive to Pd(II) complexes
To further evaluate the anticancer potential of Pd(II) pincer
complexes based on functionalized carboxamides with S-donor
amino acid residues, we analyzed the effects of 8a, 9a, 11a−c,
and a representative example of compounds I on the
proliferation of transformed breast cells HBL100 and
doxorubicin-resistant subline HBL100/Dox (Table 2). All of
8
−11.
Table 2. Cytotoxic Effects of the Pd(II) Pincer Complexes
Based on Picolinylamides with S-Donor Amino Acid
Pendant Arms on HBL100 and HBL100/Dox Cells
The S-modified cysteine-based complexes were found to be
more active than their counterparts with elongated S-donor
pendant arms against all the tested cancer cell lineages. The
order of efficiency depending on the substituent at the ancillary
sulfur donor group for the cysteine derivatives was as follows:
CH Ph > All > CH COOMe (entries 1−6). For the
homocysteine-based complexes, methoxycarbonylmethyl de-
rivatives 10c and 11c appeared to be more efficient than their
allyl analogues 10b and 11b (entries 9 and 12 vs entries 8 and
IC50 ± SD, μM
HBL100/
Dox
compound
HBL100
2
2
8
9
1
1
1
a
a
1a
1b
1c
8.4 ± 1.4
9.4 ± 2.6
9.6 ± 2.2
11.5 ± 1.0
15.0 ± 0.5
10.2 ± 0.7
9.4 ± 2.2
14.0 ± 3.5
7.8 ± 1.4
14.5 ± 1.5
20.5 ± 3.5
14.6 ± 2.2
1
1). Nevertheless, in both series the highest cytotoxic effects
were exerted by the S-modified complexes bearing benzyl
substituents. Another general tendency observed for the
S,N,N-complexes under investigation is that the introduction
of a chlorine atom into the pyridine ring facilitated the
improvement of cytotoxic activity: in some examples a
difference of more than 4 times between the IC50 values of
the corresponding 4-chloropicolinyl- and picolinylamide
derivatives was observed (entries 4−6 vs entries 1−3, entries
compound I (n = 2, X = Cl, L-methionine
derivative)
doxorubicin
0.40 ± 0.14
53.0 ± 7.0
the tested complexes provided almost the same level of growth
inhibition in both native and resistant cells, while the reference,
doxorubicin, exhibited more than a 130-fold drop in the
activity on passing to HBL100/Dox cells. This indicates that
these types of cytotoxic Pd(II) complexes can serve as the basis
for new chemotherapeutic agents that would be able to
overcome drug resistance.
1
0−12 vs entries 7−9). As in the case of prototypes I, the
positive effect of chlorine substituents can be associated with
an increase in the lipophilicity and a possibility of a
nonbonding interaction of the chlorine atom in a binding
1
2
site. The cytotoxic activity of complexes 8−11 was also
estimated against noncancer human embryonic kidney cells
Currently, it is widely recognized that targeting apoptosisa
programmed cell deathranks among the most successful
nonsurgical strategies for cancer treatment. One of the earliest
indicators of apoptosis is the externalization of phospholipid
phosphatidylserine (PS). The exposed PS can readily be
detected by the phospholipid-binding protein annexin V or its
highly luminescent conjugates with fluorochromes such as
phycoerythrin (PE). An Annexin V-PE staining assay was used
to study the ability of the complexes obtained to induce
apoptosis. The investigations were performed with some of the
most active cysteine- and homocysteine-based derivatives
complexes 8a and 11a, respectively. For comparison, the
apoptotic effects of selected representatives of other types of
cytotoxic Pd(II) pincer complexes based on functionalized
amide ligands (compounds I, V, and VI from Figure 2) were
also evaluated. Acute monocytic leukemia cells (THP-1) were
treated with the aforementioned compounds at concentrations
of 10 μM for 20 h. The following analysis by flow cytometry
(Figure 4) revealed that type VI S,N,N-complex lacking an
amino acid residue and S,N,P-complex V with an L-methionine
pendant arm provide almost the same percentages of apoptotic
cells above 30% versus 3.7% in the control experiment but are
considerably less effective in the efficiency than the S,N,N-
counterparts derived from the functionalized picolinylamides.
More importantly, the apoptotic efficiency increases on passing
from key prototype I to S-modified analogues 8a and 11a
obtained in this study: the percentages of apoptotic cells
(
HEK293) and kidney epithelial cells (NKE). Unfortunately,
an appreciable level of selectivity in the case of HEK293 cells
was observed only relative to the HCT116 cancer lineage,
although for some complexes the selectivity indices were above
3
.0. Slightly better results were achieved with the selected
examples of S-modified cyclopalladated derivatives on NKE
cells (the highest selectivity index was 7.0).
It is important to note that free ligands 2, 3, 6, and 7 did not
afford 50% cell growth inhibition even at a concentration as
high as 200 μM, suggesting that the observed cytotoxic
properties of the cyclopalladated complexes are determined by
the coordination with palladium ions, as was the case with
compounds I. In general, the S-modified derivatives obtained
in this study provide comparable levels of cytotoxic activity and
conform to the main structure−activity relationships observed
for the S-methyl-L-cysteine and methionine prototypes. This
confirms the value of pincer systems based on picolinylamides
bearing S-donor amino acid pendant arms as a potentially
interesting scaffold for the development of new antitumor
agents and renders following research in this field very
promising.
By the examples of complexes 11a,c, it was demonstrated
that the S-modified cyclopalladated derivatives, as well as
compounds I bearing methyl substituents at the ancillary S-
donor group, are stable both in neat DMSO and in DMSO−
9
885
Inorg. Chem. 2021, 60, 9880−9898