Congratulations to our PhD student Ester Giorgi for the recent scientific publication entitled “Cytotoxic auranofin analogues bearing phosphine, arsine and stibine ligands: A study on the possible role of the ligand on the biological activity” in Journal of Inorganic Biochemistry. Three gold(I) compounds with formula AuI(LPh3)] were synthesized using different elements of group 15, i.e. phosphorus, arsenic, and antimony.
Their structures were determined by XRD and their interactions with biomolecules and aminoacids were studied using NMR, mass spectrometry, and FT-IR. The reactivity with Sec and Cys changes accordingly to the ligand centre; moreover, different adducts with proteins were detected according to the strength of the bond Au-L. The cytotoxic activities were analyzed and differences discussed in detail. From biological studies on three different ovarian cancer cell lines, [AuI(PPh3)] shows the best cytotoxic properties.
The paper is available at the following link: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jinorgbio.2023.112452
