Heteroditopic P,N ligands in gold(I) complexes: synthesis, structure and cytotoxicity.

New heteroditopic, bi- and multidentate imino- and aminophosphine ligands were synthesised and complexed to [AuCl(THT)] (THT=tetrahydrothiophene). X-ray crystallography confirmed Schiff base formation in three products, the successful reduction of the imino-group to the sp(3)-hybridised amine in several instances, and confirmed the formation of mono-gold(I) imino- and aminophosphine complexes for four Au-complexes. Cytotoxicity studies in cancerous and non-cancerous cell lines showed a marked increase in cytotoxicity upon ligand complexation to gold(I). These findings were supported by results from the 60-cell line fingerprint screen of the Developmental Therapeutics Programme of the National Institutes of Health for two promising compounds. The cytotoxicity of some of these ligands and gold(I)complexes is due to the induction of apoptosis. The ligands and gold(I)complexes demonstrated selective toxicity towards specific cell lines, with Jurkat T cells being more sensitive to the cytotoxic effects of these compounds, while the non-cancerous human cell line KMST6 proved more resistant when compared to the cancerous cell lines. Results from the NIH DTP 60 cell-line fingerprint screen support the observed enhancement of cytotoxicity upon gold(I) complexation. One gold(I)complex induced high levels of apoptosis at concentrations of 50 μM in all the cell lines screened in this study, while some of the other compounds selectively induced apoptosis in the cell lines. These results point towards the potential for selective toxicity to cancerous cells through the induction of apoptosis.