(Benz)imidazole-based NHC complexes as anticancer frontiers: selenium and silver

IF 2.8 4区化学 Q3 CHEMISTRY, INORGANIC & NUCLEAR

Transition Metal Chemistry Pub Date : 2026-02-12 DOI:10.1007/s11243-025-00704-z

Ghazanfar Abbas, Tanveer Hussain Bokhari, Maham Fatima, Adnan Majeed, Muhammad Adnan Iqbal

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Abstract

Cancer, a leading cause of global mortality, demands the development of targeted therapies due to rising treatment resistance and limited efficacy of current drugs. N-heterocyclic carbenes (NHCs) represent a unique class of ligands, primarily due to their strong σ-donor and weak π-acceptor properties, making them highly valuable in organometallic and medicinal chemistry. The metal-NHC complexes are prepared by reacting the respective azolium salts with the appropriate metal sources. In recent years, metal complexes have gained considerable attention for their promising cytotoxic activity, particularly NHC-based metal complexes that demonstrate superior anticancer efficacy compared to conventional chemotherapeutic agents. This review provides a comprehensive overview of advances made over the past five years in organoselenium and silver-NHC complexes derived from (benz)imidazole, highlighting their significant potential in anticancer applications. The antitumor activities, proposed mechanisms of action, and structure–activity relationships of NHC-based metallodrugs are systematically reviewed. We hope this review inspires researchers to design novel metal-based NHC compounds for cancer treatment.

Graphical Abstract

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（Benz）咪唑基NHC配合物作为抗癌前沿：硒和银

癌症是全球死亡的主要原因，由于治疗耐药性上升和现有药物疗效有限，需要开发靶向治疗。n -杂环碳烯（NHCs）是一类独特的配体，主要是由于其强的σ-供体和弱的π-受体性质，使其在有机金属化学和药物化学中具有很高的应用价值。金属- nhc配合物是由相应的氮盐与适当的金属源反应制备的。近年来，金属配合物因其具有良好的细胞毒性活性而受到广泛关注，特别是基于nhc的金属配合物，与传统化疗药物相比，具有优越的抗癌功效。本文综述了近五年来有机硒和（奔驰）咪唑衍生的nhc -银配合物的研究进展，强调了它们在抗癌方面的巨大潜力。本文对nhc类金属药物的抗肿瘤活性、作用机制及构效关系进行了系统综述。我们希望这篇综述能激励研究人员设计新的金属基NHC化合物用于癌症治疗。图形抽象

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来源期刊

Transition Metal Chemistry 化学-无机化学与核化学

CiteScore

3.60

自引率

0.00%

发文量

审稿时长

1.3 months

期刊介绍： Transition Metal Chemistry is an international journal designed to deal with all aspects of the subject embodied in the title: the preparation of transition metal-based molecular compounds of all kinds (including complexes of the Group 12 elements), their structural, physical, kinetic, catalytic and biological properties, their use in chemical synthesis as well as their application in the widest context, their role in naturally occurring systems etc. Manuscripts submitted to the journal should be of broad appeal to the readership and for this reason, papers which are confined to more specialised studies such as the measurement of solution phase equilibria or thermal decomposition studies, or papers which include extensive material on f-block elements, or papers dealing with non-molecular materials, will not normally be considered for publication. Work describing new ligands or coordination geometries must provide sufficient evidence for the confident assignment of structural formulae; this will usually take the form of one or more X-ray crystal structures.