Silver(I) Complexes as Dual-Action Antimicrobial and Anticancer Agents

Silver and silver(I) compounds are known to possess a variety of biological activities such as antibacterial, antifungal, antiviral, and anticancer effects [1–2]. The discovery in the late 1960s of the silver(I) sulfadiazine complex (AgSD) and its widespread use, especially in burn therapy, thanks to its broad-spectrum antimicrobial activity has led to the design of numerous silver(I) complexes. For many years, our research group has been working on the synthesis and characterization of new silver(I) complexes with anticancer and antimicrobial properties, as well as on their DNA/protein binding studies and investigations of their anticancer activities.The synthesized complexes exhibited broad-spectrum antimicrobial activity against Gram-positive bacteria. In particular, [Ag(barb)(PCy₃)] showed higher cytotoxicity than cisplatin and carboplatin in MCF-7 cells. The high IC₅₀ values revealed that the complexes do not affect normal cells but kill only cancer cells.