Anticancer and Antibacterial Activity of Transition Metal Complexes

Abstract Deaths caused by cancer and bacterial infection necessitate the development of new and potential compounds with desired properties that could circumvent the problem of chemo resistant cancer and bacteria. The present review focuses on potent transition metal complexes with tunable activity against cancer cells and multidrug‐resistant bacteria. Mechanistically, transition metal complexes induce cell accumulation in the G2 phase, as well as DNA breakage and endoplasmic reticulum stress that inhibit the growth of cancerous cells. Parallelly, redox‐active, cationic transition metal complexes induce oxidative stress on bacteria and disrupt the microbial cell membrane. The MIC of some transition metal complexes were in the low micromolar range while some of the transition metal complexes show higher antibacterial activity compared to those of clinically used antibiotics. Here the potential and future of this class of metallodrugs, either as anticancer or antimicrobial agents, is discussed.