Wang Yihan, Singh Kuldip, Lu Chunxin, Suntharalingam Kogularamanan
School of Chemistry, University of Leicester, Leicester LE1 7RH, UK.
College of Biological, Chemical Sciences and Engineering, Jiaxing University, Jiaxing 314001, China.
Molecules. 2025 Apr 6;30(7):1636. doi: 10.3390/molecules30071636.
Current breast cancer therapies are unable to positively impact the lives of a significant proportion of diagnosed patients (24% based on 10-year survival rate). Breast cancer relapse and metastasis, the leading cause of breast cancer-associated deaths, is linked to the existence of breast cancer stem cells (CSCs). Redox-modulating metal complexes have been used to perturb the redox balance in breast CSCs and effect cell death. Here, we sought to expand this promising class of anti-breast CSC agents. Specifically, we report the synthesis, and anti-breast CSC properties of a series of copper(II) complexes bearing regioisomeric vanillin Schiff base ligands (-). X-ray crystallography studies show that the copper(II) complexes - adopt square planar geometries with the copper(II) centre coordinated to two vanillin Schiff base ligands. The most effective copper(II) complex within the series displays low micromolar potency towards breast CSCs, up to 4.6-fold higher than salinomycin and cisplatin. Mechanistic studies indicate that copper(II) complex elevates reactive oxygen species levels in breast CSCs, leading to activation of the JNK/p38 pathway and caspase-dependent apoptosis. Overall, this work expands the library of anti-breast CSC copper(II) complexes and provides insight into their mode of action.
目前的乳腺癌治疗方法无法对很大一部分确诊患者的生活产生积极影响(基于10年生存率为24%)。乳腺癌复发和转移是乳腺癌相关死亡的主要原因,与乳腺癌干细胞(CSCs)的存在有关。氧化还原调节金属配合物已被用于扰乱乳腺CSCs中的氧化还原平衡并导致细胞死亡。在此,我们试图扩展这类有前景的抗乳腺CSC药物。具体而言,我们报告了一系列带有区域异构体香草醛席夫碱配体(-)的铜(II)配合物的合成及其抗乳腺CSC特性。X射线晶体学研究表明,铜(II)配合物 - 采用平面正方形几何结构,铜(II)中心与两个香草醛席夫碱配体配位。该系列中最有效的铜(II)配合物对乳腺CSCs显示出低微摩尔效力,比沙林霉素和顺铂高4.6倍。机制研究表明,铜(II)配合物 提高了乳腺CSCs中的活性氧水平,导致JNK/p38途径的激活和半胱天冬酶依赖性凋亡。总体而言,这项工作扩展了抗乳腺CSC铜(II)配合物的库,并深入了解了它们的作用方式。