Rhodium(III) anticancer drugs can
exert preferential antimetastatic or cytotoxic activities, which are
dependent on subtle structural changes. In order to delineate factors
affecting the biotransformations and speciation, mer,cis-[RhCl3(S-dmso)2(O-dmso)] (A1) and mer,cis-[RhCl3(S-dmso)2(2N-indazole)]
(A2) have been studied by X-ray absorption spectroscopy
(XAS). Interactions of these complexes with saline buffer, cell culture
media, serum proteins (albumin and apo-transferrin), native and chemically
degraded collagen gels, and A549 cells have been studied using linear
combination fitting (LCF) and 3D scatter plots of XAS data. Following
initial aquation and hydrolysis reactions involving stepwise displacement
of Cl– and S-/O-dmso ligands, the Rh(III) complexes underwent further ligand substitution
reactions with biological nucleophiles (e.g., amino acid residues
of serum proteins). The reaction of A1 with chemically
degraded collagen gel was postulated to be a key reason for its antimetastatic
activity. Analyses of the XAS of Rh-treated bulk cells were consistent
with structure–reactivity relationships in which the more reactive A1 was predominantly antimetastatic and the less reactive A2 was predominantly cytotoxic, showing relationships parallel
to typical Ru(III) anticancer agents, i.e., NAMI-A ([ImH] trans-[RuCl4(S-dmso)(N-imidazole)2], ImH = imidazolium cation) and
KP1019/NKP1339 (KP1019, [IndH] trans-[RuCl4(N-indazole)2], IndH = indazolium cation; NKP1339, sodium trans-[RuCl4(2N-indazole)2]), respectively.