Metal based drugs with potential anticancer and antibacterial properties: synthesis, interaction with biological targets and mechanistic studies

Metal complexes show attractive features for medicinal application and may represent a versatile tool for the development of new drugs with an improved pharmacological profile. Nowadays, three platinum-based drugs are in worldwide clinical use for the treatment of many forms of cancer, while several metal compounds based on gold, ruthenium and platinum are currently in clinical trials for the treatment of neoplastic diseases or a variety of parasitic and bacterial infections. In this frame, we have decided to focus our attention on the synthesis, physico-chemical characterization and biological evaluation of some innovative metal complexes as promising candidate drugs. In particular, we have synthesized novel Pt, Ag or Au-based complexes bearing attractive anticancer and antibacterial properties, mainly through simple modification of clinically established compounds. These new compounds have been investigated using a multi-technique approach, to elucidate their physico-chemical properties and to identify their biological targets. All these compounds were also screened through a series of in biological studies either in vitro or in vivo. Overall, these new metal-based compounds showed interesting activity profiles and some of them are being considered for further pharmaceutical development.