The strong in vitro and vivo cytotoxicity of three new cobalt(II) complexes with 8-methoxyquinoline

• Published in: Dalton transactions : an international journal of inorganic chemistry Vol. 51; no. 22; pp. 8840 - 8847
• Main Authors: Wang, Yu-Feng, Tang, Ji-Xia, Mo, Zai-Yong, Li, Juan, Liang, Fu-Pei, Zou, Hua-Hong
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Royal Society of Chemistry 07.06.2022
• Subjects: Anticancer properties; Antiproliferatives; Apoptosis; Autophagy; Biocompatibility; Cobalt compounds; Coordination compounds; Hydroxyquinoline; Toxicity
• ISSN: 1477-9226; 1477-9234
• DOI: 10.1039/d2dt01310j

Three new cobalt(II) complexes, [Co(MQL) Cl ] (CoCl), [Co(MQL) Br ] (CoBr), and [Co(MQL) I ] (CoI), bearing 8-methoxyquinoline (MQL) have been designed for the first time. MTT assays showed that CoCl, CoBr, and CoI exhibit much better antiproliferative activities than cisplatin toward cisplatin-resistant SK-OV-3/DDP and SK-OV-3 ovarian cancer cells, with IC values of as low as 0.32-5.49 μM. Further, CoCl and CoI can regulate autophagy-related proteins in SK-OV-3/DDP cells and, therefore, they can induce primarily autophagy-mediated cell apoptosis in the following order: CoCl > CoI. The different antiproliferative activities of the MQL complexes CoCl, CoBr, and CoI could be correlated with the lengths of their Co-X bonds, which adopted the following order: CoI > CoBr > CoCl. The 8-HOMQ complexes CoCl ( 60.1%) and CoI ( 48.8%) also showed potent anticancer effects after 15 days of treatment. In summary, the MQL ligand highly enhances the antiproliferative activities of cobalt(II) complexes in comparison to other previously reported 8-hydroxyquinoline metal complexes.