Synthesis and Biological Evaluation of Gold(III) Substituted Tetraarylporphyrin Chlorides as Anticancer Reagents

Substituted gold(III) tetraarylporphyrins have been synthesised. The analogues TPPAuCl (TPP = tetraphenylporhyrin), MeOTPPAuCl, TMOPPAuCl, MeO 2 CTPPAuCl, O 2 NTPPAuCl and PyTPPAuCl were evaluated for their in vitro cytotoxic activity against the Sarcoma 180 mouse tumour cell line panel. Compound MeO 2 CTPPAuCl exhibited good growth inhibitory properties against Sarcoma 180 and afforded IC 50 values <3μM for 92.386% of the cell lines in the panel. Compounds MeOTPPAuCl and TPPAuCl were effective inhibitors of tumour cell growth, but generally less effective than MeO 2 CTPPAuCl as cytotoxic agents.