Highly Potent Rhenium(I) Tricarbonyl Complexes with Dual Anticancer and Anti-Angiogenic Activity Against Colorectal Carcinoma

Synthesized and characterized a series of rhenium(I) trycarbonyl-based complexes with increased lipophilicity. Two of these novel compounds were discovered to possess remarkable anticancer, anti-angiogenic and antimetastatic activity in vivo (zebrafish-human CRC xenograft model), being effective at very low doses (1-3 µM). At doses as high as 250 µM the complexes did not provoke toxicity issues encountered in clinical anticancer drugs (cardio-, hepato-, and myelotoxicity). The two compounds exceed the antiproliferative and anti-angiogenic potency of clinical drugs cisplatin and sunitinib-malate, and display a large therapeutic window.