Eight novel Ir(III)
complexes listed as [Ir(H–P)2(P)]PF6 (PyP-Ir), [Ir(H–P)2(dMP)]PF6 (PydMP-Ir), [Ir(H–P)2(MP)]PF6 (PyMP-Ir), [Ir(H–P)2(tMP)]PF6 (PytMP-Ir), [Ir(MPy)2(P)]PF6 (MPyP-Ir), [Ir(MPy)2(dMP)]PF6 (MPydMP-Ir), [Ir(MPy)2(MP)]PF6 (MPyMP-Ir), [Ir(MPy)2((tMP)]PF6 (MPytMP-Ir) with 2-phenylpyri-dine
(H–P) and 3-methyl-2-phenylpyridine (MPy) as ancillary ligands and pyrido-[3,2-a]-pyrido[1′,2′:1,2]imidazo[4,5-c]phenazine (P), 12,13-dimethyl pyrido-[3,2-a]-pyrido[1′,2′:1,2]-imidazo-[4,5-c]-phenazine (dMP), 2-methylpyrido [3,2-a]-pyrido-[1′,2′:1,2]-imidazo-[4,5-c]-phenazine (MP), and 2,12,13-trimethylpyrido-[3,2-a]-pyrido-[1′,2′:1,2]-imidazo-[4,5-c]-phenazine (tMP) as main ligands, respectively,
were designed and synthesized to fully characterize and explore the
effect of their toxicity on cancer cells. Cytotoxic mechanism studies
demonstrated that the eight Ir(III) complexes exhibited highly potent
antitumor activity selectively against cancer cell lines NCI-H460,
T-24, and HeLa, and no activity against HL-7702, a noncancerous cell
line. Among the eight Ir(III) complexes, MPytMP-Ir exhibited
the highest cytotoxicity with an IC50 = 5.05 ± 0.22
nM against NCI-H460 cells. The antitumor activity of MPytMP-Ir
in vitro could be contributed to the steric or
electronic effect of the methyl groups, which induced telomerase inhibition
and damaged mitochondria in NCI-H460 cells. More importantly, MPytMP-Ir displayed a superior inhibitory effect on NCI-H460
xenograft in vivo than cisplatin. Our work demonstrates
that MPytMP-Ir could potentially be developed as a novel
potent Ir-based antitumor drug.