Screening of ferrocenyl-phosphines identifies a gold-coordinated derivative as a novel anticancer agent for...

The development of new organometallic compounds as anticancer agents is currently an active area of research. Here, we report the design, synthesis and characterization of a panel of 10 new ferrocenyl-phosphine derivatives (FD1-FD10) and the analysis of their anti-proliferative activities in hematolymphoid cells representing non-Hodgkin cutaneous T-cell lymphoma (CTCL). The gold-coordinated ferrocenyl-phosphine complex FD10 exhibited a significant and dose-dependent cytotoxicity in 4 different CTCL cell lines - HuT78, HH, MJ and MyLa. FD10 concentrations causing 50% cell growth inhibition (IC₅₀) of HuT78, HH, MJ and MyLa cells at 24 h were recorded to be 5.55 ± 0.20, 7.80 ± 0.09, 3.16 ± 0.10 and 6.46 ± 0.24 μM respectively. Further mechanistic studies showed that FD10 induced apoptosis in CTCL cells by an intrinsic pathway mediated via the activation of caspase-3 and poly(ADP-ribose)polymerase. It suppressed the expression and activity of STAT3 oncoprotein in CTCL cells. FD10 caused robust G0/G1 phase cell cycle arrest and reduced the expression levels of Akt S473 phosphorylation and c-Myc, both are key cell cycle regulator proteins. Taken together, this study highlights anticancer properties of the ferrocenyl-phosphine gold organometallic complex FD10 and suggests that further development of this novel class of molecule may contribute to new drug discovery for certain hematolymphoid malignancies.