Research Information System
Journal of the Indian Chemical Society, vol.102, no.3, 2025 (SCI-Expanded)
This paper reports the antiproliferative activity of N-heterocyclic carbene (NHC) silver complexes. The silver metal complexes containing benzimidazole nuclei, which are known to have a wide variety of biological activity properties, were prepared using benzimidazolium salts. The aim of the study was to seek out the antiproliferative effect of synthesized N-heterocyclic carbene complexes. The cytotoxicity of complexes was tested by using the MTT method with human breast epithelial adenocarcinomas (MDA-MB-231, and MCF-7), human colorectal adenocarcinoma (DLD-1), human prostate adenocarcinoma (PC-3), and mouse fibroblastic healthy (L929) cell lines. Ploxal-S was used as a positive control drug. The complexes (2a, 2b) were found to be more effective than ploxal-S. Therefore, these metal complexes can be further investigated as potential anticancer agents. The wet-lab study uncovered the anticancer activity of the synthesized NHC-silver complexes. Molecular modeling methods were used to shed light on the probable mode of action for the detected potency. A study reported that NHC-silver complexes exhibited their anticancer activity by acting on apoptosis-inducing factors (AIF). Hence, computational methods were used to elucidate the binding potential of the synthesized NHC-silver complexes to AIF and thus form a stable complex with the protein. The docking study demonstrated that compounds 2a and 2b had the potential to bind to the AIF target. The molecular dynamics (MD) simulation study indicated that the two compounds formed a stable complex with the protein. Furthermore, the two compounds would remain inside the protein's binding pocket during the simulation period. The density functional theory (DFT) study disclosed that compound 2b might have a slightly higher chemical stability relative to compound 2a.