Solving the Challenging Synthesis of Highly Cytotoxic Silver Complexes Bearing Sterically Hindered NHC Ligands with Mechanochemistry

20 January 2020, Version 1
This content is a preprint and has not undergone peer review at the time of posting.

Abstract

The use of ball-mills enabled the straightforward synthesis of a variety of silver(I) complexes featuring challenging NHC ligands. Sterically hindered including electron-poor or with very low solubility imidazolium salts were grinded with silver(I) oxide to furnish heteroleptic or homoleptic complexes in high yield and short reaction times. The synthesis of heteroleptic bis-NHC silver(I) complexes was also performed for the first time in a ball-mill. The efficiency and rapidity of the mechanochemical approach enabled the generation of a library of unprecedented NHC silver complexes, which cytotoxicity on HCT116 colorectal cancer cell line was evaluated providing a rare example of medicinal mechanochemistry. The cationic silver complexes were found more potent than the neutral analogues, with IC50 values down to 21 nM, 256 times more potent than cisplatin.

Keywords

medicinal mechanochemistry
ball-milling
N-heterocyclic carbene ligand
Silver Complexes
anticancer activity

Supplementary materials

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20200117 SI AgBio
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