Ferrocene Bioconjugates

In this review we present our recent contribution to the field of bioorganometallic chemistry of ferrocene. Ferrocene conjugates with biomolecules have been synthesized and characterized using IR and NMR (1H, 13C, COSY, NOESY, HMBC) spectroscopy, ESI-MS and HRMS. The bioconjugates of ferrocene with resveratrol (2) and mannose (10, 11, 14 and 15) were biologically evaluated for their potential inhibitory effect on HepG2 cancer cells (2) and E. coli adherence to the bladder epithelium (10, 11, 14 and 15). The oxalamide-bridged ferrocene 17 was sub¬jected to conformational analysis in solution and in the solid state, and tested for its gelation and cytotoxic activity. The mono- (30–32, 36–38, 42–45) and disubstituted ferrocene conjugates with natural amino acids (21–28, 33–35, 39–41, 48, 49, 62–65, 69–72) were subjected to the detailed conformational and DFT analyses in order to determine the turn-inducing potential of ferrocene scaffolds in the corresponding peptidomimetics. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License