Download or read book Synthesis of N-heterocyclic Carbene Gold(I) Complexes written by Luca Boselli and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page 158 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Biomedical applications of gold complexes based on N-heterocyclic carbenes (NHCs) are beginning to unfold. Some cationic gold(I) NHCs complexes show antimitochondrial activities, a very promising action mode in the fight against cancer; due to their positive charge these complexes target preferentially tumor cells, leading to cell death. In this work of thesis, three groups of new NHC-based gold and heterobimetallic complexes involving aliphatic or aromatic amino-functionalized NHCs with interesting potential in biomedical research have been synthesized and characterized. The first group is formed by three luminescent heterobimetallic gold(I)-ruthenium(II) complexes containing heteroditopic bipyridine-NHC ligands. These compounds have been biologically investigated by in vitro tests for their antitumoral, antileishmanial and antimalarial activities. Finally, imaging studies in cancer cells have been performed exploiting the luminescent properties of the most active compound. The second group of molecules is concerned by cationic gold(I) complexes containing two 1-[2-(diethylamino)ethyl]imidazolydene ligands. First the complexes have been tested for their antiproliferative activity in prostate cancer cell line PC-3. Lipophilicity (Log P) has been determined for these complexes. The most active complex has been tested for the cytotoxic activities in five human cancer cell lines and primary endothelial cells demonstrating a potent action and selectivity for cancer cells. In addition, antileishmanial and antimalarial activities of these compounds have been investigated showing interesting results. The third group is formed by a hetero-dinuclear gold(I)-silver(I) and a trinuclear gold(I)-copper(II) complexes containing phenanthroline-NHC ligands. The compounds are formed by two different organometallic units potentially able to act as multi-targeting anticancer drug.