Spreading the Medicinal Chemistry frontiers: Novel Thiourea-Metal Complexes

Nowadays, the discovery of new potential anticancer drugs is one of the main aims of Medicinal Chemistry. There is a wide range of different approaches: new modes of action, new species or new ligands are some of them.

Gold(I) and silver(I) complexes are especially interesting in this field due to their antitumor properties. Complexes with these metal centers also seem to avoid side effects in cancer treatment.

This work consists of two parts. The first one is a chemical part: the design and synthesis of new thiourea-metal complexes. The second one is medical: the study of the anticancer activities of novel compounds. Both thiourea ligands bear a phosphine group in one arm, and a phenyl ring, or a 3,5-di-CF₃, in the other. Although the thioureas used in this research showed no significant cytotoxic activities, all complexes show excellent anticancer activities for Jurkat, A549, and HeLa cell lines.