In an ongoing effort to develop anticancer therapeutics that might improve upon the clinically used drug cisplatin (a platinum-based compound), gold-based compounds have been widely investigated by numerous research groups. Our lab has previously found that the organic component of the gold complex can exhibit anticancer activity that is often better than the parent gold drug, therefore we sought to synthesize and characterize an expanded library of organic ligands and corresponding gold complexes to determine if the therapeutic activity of the gold-based compounds is simply dependent on the organic ligand. The data reported in this recent Journal of Inorganic Biochemistry article reveal that there is no correlation between the in vitro anticancer activity of the parent gold complexes and the organic ligands, indicating that this class of potential gold drugs has a mechanism of initiating tumor cell death that is different from the organic substituent. Hence, these gold therapeutics should be further investigated as potential anticancer agents.

This project has been ideal for undergraduate researchers, as students are able to apply numerous course concepts and laboratory skills that span the organic and inorganic chemistry curriculum. More importantly, students are able to see a direct application of their work as their compounds are evaluated for in vitro anticancer activity. Over the course of the last three years, the undergraduate researchers have worked in two-person teams in which each team synthesizes the organic ligand, the corresponding gold complex, and then conducts preliminary stability experiments of the gold compounds in biological media. In collaboration with the lab of Dr. Emma Wilson in the Division of Biomedical Sciences in the School of Medicine, another two-person student team then carried out the in vitro activity of the entire library of compounds. The more senior students then worked with Dr. Eichler in preparing the manuscript for publication.