Cyclometalated Ir(III)-8-oxychinolin complexes acting as red-colored probes for specific mitochondrial imaging and anticancer drugs

A new class of luminescent Ir-III antitumor agents, namely, [Ir(CP1)(PY1)(2)] (Ir-1), [Ir(CP1)(PY2)(2)] (Ir-2), [Ir(CP1)(PY4)(2)] (Ir-3), [Ir(CP2)(PY1)(2)] (Ir-4), [Ir(CP2)(PY4)(2)] (Ir-5), [Ir(CP3)(PY1)(2)],CH3OH (Ir-6), [Ir(CP4)(PY4)(2)],CH3OH (Ir-7), [Ir(CP5)(PY2)(2)] (Ir-8), [Ir(CP5)(PY4)(2)]center dot CH3OH (Ir-9), [Ir(CP6)(PY1)(2)] (Ir-10), [Ir(CP6)(PY2)(2)],CH3OH (Ir-11), [Ir(CP6)(PY3)(2)] (Ir-12), [Ir(CP6)(PY41)(2)] (Ir-13), and [Ir(CP7)(PY1)(2)] (Ir-14), supported by 8-oxychinolin derivatives and 1-phenylpyrazole ligands was prepared. Compared with SK-OV-3/DDP and HL-7702 cells, the Ir-1-Ir-14 compounds exhibited half maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) values within the high nanomolar range (50 nM-10.99 mu M) in HeLa cells. In addition, Ir-1 and Ir-3 accumulated and stained the mitochondrial inner membrane of HeLa cells with high selectivity and exhibited a high antineoplastic activity in the entire cervical HeLa cells, with IC50 values of 1.22 +/- 0.36 mu M and 0.05 +/- 0.04 mu M, respectively. This phenomenon induced mitochondrial dysfunction, suggesting that these cyclometalated Ir-III complexes can be potentially used in biomedical imaging and Ir(III)-based anticancer drugs. Furthermore, the high cytotoxicity activity of Ir-3 is correlated with the 1-phenylpyrazole (H-PY4) secondary ligands in the luminescent Ir-III antitumor complex. (c) 2020 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.