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Cancer poses a serious threat to health globally, with millions diagnosed every year. According to Global Cancer Statistics 2024, about 20 million new cases were reported in 2022, and 9.7 million people worldwide died of this condition. Advanced therapies include combination of one or more treatment procedures, depending on the type, stage, and particular genetic constitution of the cancer, which may include surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy, immunotherapy, hormone therapy, targeted therapy, and stem cell transplant. Also, awareness about lifestyle changes, preventive measures and screening at early stages has reduced the incidence of the disease; still, there is a major failure in controlling the incidence of cancer because of its complex and multifaceted nature. With increasing interest in bacterial metabolites as possible novel and effective treatment options in cancer therapy, their main benefits include not only direct anticancer effects but also the modulation of the immune system and potential for targeted and combination therapies. They can therefore be used in combination with chemotherapy, radiotherapy, or immunotherapy to improve outcomes or reduce side effects. Furthermore, nanoparticle-based delivery systems have the potential to enhance the potency and safety of anticancer drugs by providing improved stability, targeted release, and controlled delivery., (© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Finding new sources of biologically active compounds for anticancer or antimicrobial therapies remains an active area of research. Azothioformamides (ATFs) with a 1,3 N=N-C=S heterodiene backbone are a new class of biologically active compounds that chelate metals (e.g., Cu) forming stable ATF metal coordination complexes. In this study, ATF ligands were prepared with pyrrolidine, piperidine, N -methylpiperazine, and morpholine substituents on the formamide as to add more heterocyclic drug-like character for biological studies. Formamide derivatives were then complexed with various Cu(I) salts to form coordination complexes. Cu(I) salts were selected as to create potential bioactive compounds with less toxicity. Binding association constants of each Cu(I) salt to ATF ligands were extrapolated from UV-vis titration studies and were corroborated with DFT calculations using a hybrid functional B3LYP method. It was observed that the smaller pyrrolidine functionalized ATFs bound to the Cu(I) salts had stronger binding than any of the larger six-membered-ring heterocycles with association values in the 10 4 - 10 5 M -1 range. The ATF-Cu(I) salt coordination complexes were then evaluated for antimicrobial activity against two bacteria ( Staphylococcus aureus , Escherichia coli ), one yeast ( Candida albicans ), four human cancer lines (A-549, K-562, HT-1080, MDA-MB-231), and two normal human lines (MRC-5, HFF). The ATF ligands themselves were inactive against all microbes and most human lines except K-562 cells, which were sensitive to three of the four ligands (IC 50 's = 7.0-25.5 μM). Most ATF-Cu(I) complexes showed low to medium micromolar activity against Candida albicans (IC 50 's 2.6-24.8 μM) and Staphylococcus aureus (IC 50 's = 3.4-37.7 μM), with increasing activity corresponding to complexes with higher binding association constants. The antiproliferative properties of ATF-Cu(I) metal salt complexes against mammalian cells were mixed, with low to medium micromolar activity across all cell lines. Notably, several ATF-Cu(I) salt coordination complexes showed submicromolar activity against the HT-1080 fibrosarcoma line (0.52-0.69 μM). The results demonstrate promising activity of ATF-Cu(I) complexes, particularly with pyrrolidine as the formamide component. These studies suggest that the stronger binding association values correlate to higher levels of biological activity., Competing Interests: The authors declare no competing financial interest., (© 2024 The Authors. Published by American Chemical Society.)

The title complex, [ZnCl(C 12 H 15 N 3 O 2 ) 2 ][ZnCl 3 (CH 3 CN)], was synthesized and its structure was fully characterized through single-crystal X-ray diffraction analysis. The complex crystallizes in the ortho-rhom-bic system, space group Pbca (61), with a central zinc atom coordinating one chlorine atom and two pyrrolidinyl-4-meth-oxy-phenyl azoformamide ligands in a bidentate manner, utilizing both the nitro-gen and oxygen atoms in a 1,3-heterodiene (N=N-C=O) motif for coordinative bonding, yielding an overall positively (+1) charged complex. The complex is accompanied by a [(CH 3 CN)ZnCl 3 ] - counter-ion. The crystal data show that the harder oxygen atoms in the heterodiene zinc chelate form bonding inter-actions with distances of 2.002 (3) and 2.012 (3) Å, while nitro-gen atoms are coordinated by the central zinc cation with bond lengths of 2.207 (3) and 2.211 (3) Å. To gain further insight into the inter-molecular inter-actions within the crystal, Hirshfeld surface analysis was performed, along with the calculation of two-dimensional fingerprint plots. This analysis revealed that H⋯H (39.9%), Cl⋯H/H⋯Cl (28.2%) and C⋯H/H⋯C (7.2%) inter-actions are dominant. This unique crystal structure sheds light on arrangement and bonding inter-actions with azo-formamide ligands, and their unique qualities over similar semicarbazone and azo-thio-formamide structures., (© Tiwari and Waynant 2024.)

Redox-active azothioformamides (ATFs) contain an NNCS 1,3-heterodiene motif typically found in other molecular subclasses that exhibit a wide range of cytotoxic and anti-neoplastic effects, either alone or as chelation complexes with various metals. For this study, a small library of ATF compounds was synthesized and tested across a range of microbes, fungi, and cancer cell lines for biological activity, both alone and as metal chelates of copper(I) and silver(I) salts. Alone, the ATF compounds exhibited little antimicrobial activity, but all inhibited the cell growth of A549 lung carcinoma cells (IC 50 values of 1-6 μM). As copper(I) and silver(I) coordination complexes, several of the ATFs showed antimicrobial activity against gram positive Staphylococcus aureus and Bacillus subtilis cells (IC 50  ∼ 5-20 μM) and the fungi Candida albicans (IC 50  ∼ 8-12 μM); as well as cytotoxicity against both lung carcinoma A549 cells and lymphoblastic leukemia K562 cells., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023. Published by Elsevier Inc.)

Theoretical investigations were carried out on the gas-phase reactions of CF3C(O)OCH2CH3, ethyl trifluoroacetate (ETFA) with Cl atoms by means of modern density functional theory methods. The optimized geometries, frequencies and minimum energy path were obtained with the hybrid density functional model MPWB1K using the 6-31+G(d,p) basis set. The single point energy calculations were refined further using the G2(MP2) method. Two conformers relatively close in energy were identified for ETFA; both are likely to be important in the temperature range of our study. The existence of transition states on the corresponding potential energy surface was ascertained by performing intrinsic reaction coordinate calculations. The rate constant at 298 K calculated theoretically using canonical transition state theory was found to be in good agreement with experimentally measured values. Our calculations suggest that H abstraction from the -CH2 group is kinetically and thermodynamically more favorable than abstraction from the -CH3 group. The atmospheric lifetime of ETFA with Cl atoms was determined to be 1.98 years. To the best of our knowledge, this work represents the first determination of the rate coefficients for the gas-phase reaction of chlorine atoms in ETFA.

The present work deals with the theoretical investigation on the Cl initiated H-atom abstraction reaction of sevoflurane, (CF3)2CHOCH2F. A dual-level procedure has been adopted for studying the kinetics of the reaction. Geometrical optimization and frequency calculation were performed at DFT(BHandHLYP)/6-311G(d,p) while single-point energy calculation was made at CCSD(T)/6-311G(d,p) level of theory. The intrinsic reaction coordinate (IRC) calculation has also been performed to confirm the smooth transition from the reactant to product through the respective transition state. The rate constants were calculated using conventional transition state theory (TST). It has been found that 99 % of the reaction proceeded via the H-atom abstraction from the –CH2F end of the sevoflurane. The rate constant of the dominant path is found to be 1.13 × 10⁻¹³ cm³ molecule⁻¹ s⁻¹. This is in excellent agreement with the reported experimental rate constant of 1.10 × 10⁻¹³ cm³ molecule⁻¹ s⁻¹ obtained by relative rate method using FTIR/Smog chamber and LP/LIF techniques.