2019/10/11 by Selda Abyar, Ali Akbar Khandar, Roya Salehi +9 · 2 citations
Medicine · Materials Science · Environmental Science · #Metal complexes synthesis and properties #Lanthanide and Transition Metal Complexes #Arsenic contamination and mitigation
paper · pdf · doi:10.1038/s41598-019-51109-9
openalex publication_date 2019/10/11 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/04
Abstract Complexes based on heavy metals have great potential for the treatment of a wide variety of cancers but their use is often limited due to toxic side effects. Here we describe the synthesis of two new cadmium complexes using N(4)-phenyl-2-formylpyridine thiosemicarbazone (L1) and 5-aminotetrazole (L2) as organic ligands and the evaluation of their anti-cancer and nephrotoxic potential in vitro . The complexes were characterized by Single-crystal X-ray data diffraction, 1 HNMR, FT-IR, LC/MS spectrometry and CHN elemental analysis. Next, cytotoxicity of these cadmium complexes was evaluated in several cancer cell lines, including MCF-7 (breast), Caco-2 (colorectal) and cisplatin-resistant A549 (lung) cancer cell lines, as well as in conditionally-immortalized renal proximal tubule epithelial cell lines for evaluating nephrotoxicity compared to cisplatin. We found that both compounds were toxic to the cancer cell lines in a cell-cycle dependent manner and induced caspase-mediated apoptosis and caspase-independent cell death. Nephrotoxicity of these compounds was compared to cisplatin, a known nephrotoxic drug, in vitro . Our results demonstrate that compound 2, but not compound 1, exerts increased cytotoxicity in MCF-7 and A549 cell lines, combined with reduced nephrotoxic potential compared to cisplatin. Together these data make compound 2 a likely candidate for further development in cancer treatment.