a b s t r a c tWe have previously shown that conjugated ferrocenyl p-phenols show strong cytotoxic effects against both the hormone-dependent MCF-7 and hormone-independent MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cell lines, possibly via oxidative quinone methide formation. We now present a series of analogous amine and acetamide compounds: 2-ferrocenyl-1-(4-aminophenyl)-1-phenyl-but-1-ene (Z+E-2), 2-ferrocenyl-1-(4-Nacetylaminophenyl)-1-phenyl-but-1-ene (Z-3), and their corresponding organic molecules 1-(4-aminophenyl)-1,2-bis-phenyl-but-1-ene (Z+E-4) and 1-(4-N-acetamidophenyl)-1,2-bis-phenyl-but-1-ene (Z+E-5). All of the compounds have adequate relative binding affinity values for the estrogen receptor; between 2.8% and 5.7% for ERa, and between 0.18% and 15.5% for ERb, as well as exothermic ligand binding in in silico ER docking experiments. Compounds 2 and 3 show dual estrogenic/cytotoxic activity on the MCF-7 cell line; they are proliferative at low concentrations (0.1 lM) and antiproliferative at high concentrations (10 lM). On the MDA-MB-231 cell line, the ferrocenyl complexes 2 and 3 are antiproliferative with IC 50 values of 0.8 lM for 2 and 0.65 lM for 3, while the purely organic molecules 4 and 5 show no effect. Electrochemical experiments suggest that both 2 and 3 can be transformed to oxidized quinoidtype species, analogous to what had previously been observed for the ferrocene phenols.
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