Rhenium(I) tricarbonyl compounds of bioactive thiosemicarbazones: Synthesis, characterization and activity against Trypanosoma cruzi.

American Trypanosomiasis is a chronic infection discovered and described in 1909 by the Brazilian scientist Carlos Chagas. It is caused by the protozoan parasite Trypanosoma cruzi. Although it affects about 10million people in Latin America, the current chemotherapy is still inadequate. The discovery of new drugs is urgently needed. Our group is focused on the development of prospective metal-based drugs mainly based on bioactive ligands and pharmacologically interesting metal ions. In this work three new rhenium(I) tricarbonyl compounds fac-[Re(CO)Br(HL)] where HL=5-nitrofuryl containing thiosemicarbazones were synthesized and fully characterized in solution and in the solid state. The in vitro evaluation of the compounds on T. cruzi trypomastigotes (Dm28c strain) showed that the Re(I) compounds are 8 to 15 times more active than the reference drug Nifurtimox and show a 4 to 17 fold increase in activity in respect to the free (HL) ligands. Obtained compounds also show good selectivity indexes (IC/IC). H NMR and MS studies, performed with time, showed that the fac-[Re(CO)Br(HL)] species convert into the dimers [Re(CO)(L)] in solution. Crystal structure of [Re(CO)(L2)], the product of complexes' dimerization, was solved. Related to the mechanism of action, the studied compounds do not generate radical oxygen species in the parasite (as 5-nitrofuryl derived thiosemicarbazones do) probably due to the unfavorable nitro reduction potential of the generated dimeric species. On the contrary, the compounds produce a decrease of the oxygen consumption rate of the parasites, maybe inhibiting their mitochondrial respiration.