Investigations on the antitumor activity of metallacarboranes are sparse in the literature and limited to a handful of ruthenaand molybdacarboranes. In this study, the molybdacarborane fragment [3-(CO) 2 -closo-3,1,2-MoC 2 B 9 H 11 ] was combined with a vector molecule, inspired by the well-known drug tamoxifen or 4,4'-dihydroxytamoxifen (TAM-diOH). The molybdacarborane derivative [3,3-{4-[1,1-bis(4-hydroxyphenyl)but-1-en-2-yl]-2,2'-bipyridine-k 2 N,N'}-3-(CO) 2 -closo-3,1,2-MoC 2 B 9 H 11 ] (10), as well as the ligand itself 4-[1,1-bis(4-hydroxyphenyl)but-1-en-2-yl]-2,2'-bipyridine (6) showed cytotoxic activities in the low micromolar range against breast adenocarcinoma (MDA-MB-231, MDA-MB-361 and MCF-7), human glioblastoma (LN-229) and human glioma (U-251) cell lines. In addition, compounds 6 and 10 were found to induce senescence and cytodestructive autophagy, lower ROS/RNS levels, but only the molybdacarborane 10 induced a strong increase of nitric oxide (NO) concentration in the MCF-7 cells.

Herein we report an unprecedented, convenient NHC‐catalyzed one‐pot cascade reaction to afford α,ω‐difunctionalized hydroxytrifluoromethyl alkynones and allenones in a single step. The critical fragile aliphatic aldehydes are introduced by a base‐mediated in situ Grob‐type fragmentation of their corresponding latent cyclic vinylogous hemiacetal triflate (VHAT) and γ‐hydroxy vinyl triflate (GHVT) precursors, avoiding typical problems and losses upon isolation. The ′demasked′ aldehydes are subsequently trapped by NHC‐catalyzed umpolung and further metal‐free C−C‐cross‐coupling to access a broad scope of terminally modified alkynyl or allenyl aliphatic, aromatic and heteroaromatic trifluoromethyl ketones as multifunctionalized, high‐value building blocks for advanced synthetic applications. Additional synthetic utility of this approach is demonstrated with the possibility for asymmetric variants using chiral NHC‐catalysts.