-Heterocyclic Carbene Iron Complexes as Anticancer Agents: In Vitro and In Vivo Biological Studies.

Cisplatin and its derivatives are commonly used in chemotherapeutic treatments of cancer, even though they suffer from many toxic side effects. The problems that emerge from the use of these metal compounds led to the search for new complexes capable to overcome the toxic side effects. Here, we report the evaluation of the antiproliferative activity of Fe(II) cyclopentadienyl complexes bearing -heterocyclic carbene ligands in tumour cells and their in vivo toxicological profile. The in vitro antiproliferative assays demonstrated that complex displays the highest cytotoxic activity both in human colorectal carcinoma cells (HCT116) and ovarian carcinoma cells (A2780) with IC values in the low micromolar range. The antiproliferative effect of was even higher than cisplatin. Interestingly, showed low in vivo toxicity, and in vivo analyses of and compounds using colorectal HCT116 zebrafish xenograft showed that both reduce the proliferation of human HCT116 colorectal cancer cells in vivo.