ABSTRACT
The cobalt(II) complex salts [Co(bpy)(az)2](PF6)2 and [Co(az)4](PF6), each bearing the unusual cis-N,N'-diphenylazodioxide ligand, were both screened as possible anticancer agents against SK-HEP-1 liver cancer cells. Both compounds were found to induce substantial apoptosis as an increasing function of concentration and time. Measurement of apoptosis-related proteins indicated that both the extrinsic and intrinsic pathways of apoptosis were activated. The apoptotic activity induced by these salts is not displayed either by simple cobalt(II) salts or complexes or by the free nitrosobenzene ligand. Additionally, these compounds did not induce apoptosis, as assessed by poly(adenosine diphosphate-ribose) polymerase cleavage, in several other cell lines.
ABSTRACT
Removal of chloride from CoCl2 with TlPF6 in acetonitrile, followed by addition of excess nitrosobenzene, yielded the eight-coordinate cobalt(II) complex salt [Co{Ph(O)NN(O)Ph}4](PF6)2, shown by single-crystal X-ray analysis to have a distorted tetragonal geometry. The analogous treatment of the bipyridyl complex Co(bpy)Cl2 yielded the mixed-ligand cobalt(II) complex salt [Co(bpy){Ph(O)NN(O)Ph}2](PF6)2, whose single-crystal X-ray structure displays a trigonal prismatic geometry, similar to that of the iron(II) cation in the previously known complex salt [Fe{Ph(O)NN(O)Ph}3](FeCl4)2. The use of TlPF6 to generate solvated metal complex cations from chloride salts or chlorido complexes, followed by the addition of nitrosobenzene, is shown to be a useful synthetic strategy for the preparation of azodioxide complex cations with the noncoordinating, diamagnetic PF6 - counteranion. Coordination number appears to be more important than d electron count in determining the geometry and metal-ligand bond distances of diphenylazodioxide complexes.
