Novel ferrocenylbisphosphonate hybrid compounds: Synthesis, characterization and potent activity against cancer cell lines

The toxicity of existing anticancer agents on healthy cells and the emergence of multidrug-resistance cancer cells have led to the search for less toxic anticancer agents with different mechanisms of action. In this study, a novel class of ferrocenylbisphosphonate hybrid compounds (H1-H8) were designed and characterized using NMR, IR and HRMS. The in vitro anticancer activity of the hybrid compounds on HeLa (cervix adenocarcinoma) and A549 (non-small cell lung cancer cell lines) was evaluated. The structure-activity relationship of the hybrid molecules was also studied. The lead compound, tetraethyl (3-(4-oxo-4-ferrocenylbutanamido) propane-1-1-diylbis (phosphonate) (H6) exhibited higher cytotoxicity on A549 (IC50 = 28.15 mu M) than cisplatin (IC50 = 58.28 mu M), while its activity on HeLa cells (IC50 = 14.69 mu M) was equivalent to that of cisplatin 15.10 mu M (HeLa cells). H6 (IC50 = 95.58 mu M) was also five times less toxic than cisplatin (IC50 = 20.86 mu M) on fibroblast NIH3T3 suggesting that H6 can be a future replacement for cisplatin due to its non-toxicity to healthy cells. Interestingly, some ferrocene and bisphosphonate parent compounds exhibited promising anticancer activity with 4-ferrocenyl-4-oxobutanoic acid (FI) exhibiting higher cytotoxic activity (IC50 = 1.73 mu M) than paclitaxel (IC50 = 3.5 mu M) on A549 cell lines. F1 also exhibited lower cytotoxicity than paclitaxel and cisplatin on the normal murine fibroblast cell line (NIH3T3). The molecular docking studies showed H6 strong binding affinity for the STAT3 signaling pathway in A549 cell line, and the MAdCAM-1 and cellular tumor antigen p53 proteins in HeLa cell lines.

Automated summary

In this study, a novel class of ferrocenylbisphosphonate hybrid compounds were designed and evaluated for their anticancer activity. The lead compound H6 exhibited high cytotoxicity on cancer cells while being less toxic to healthy cells, showing potential as a replacement for cisplatin. Additionally, some parent compounds of ferrocene and bisphosphonate also showed promising anticancer activity.