Development of a novel highly anti-proliferative family of gold complexes: Au(I)-phosphoniumphosphines

International audienceA family of gold(I)-phosphonium-phosphines complexes was synthesized thanks to an efficient 5-step strategy, which involve a phospha-Fries rearrangement. It enables the facile variation of the phosphonium moiety. All the complexes along with the synthetic intermediate was fully characterized (a crystal structure was obtained for two of them). The antiproliferative properties of the six novel complexes were evaluated on three human cancer cell lines (A549, MDA-MB-231, and SW480) and compared to three benchmark anticancer drugs used in clinics (oxaliplatin, 5fluorouracil, and paclitaxel) and to a phosphonium-free gold(I) complex [AuPPh3AuBr]. All the gold(I) complexes, containing a phosphonium, displayed strong anti-proliferative properties. They were more efficient than oxaliplatin and than 5-fluorouracil, and one of the complexes was even more efficient than paclitaxel