Heteroditopic P,N ligands in gold(I) complexes: synthesis, structure and cytotoxicity.

New heteroditopic, bi- and multidentate imino- and aminophosphine ligands were synthesised and complexed to [AuCl(THT)] (THT=tetrahydrothiophene). X-ray crystallography confirmed Schiff base formation in three products, the successful reduction of the imino-group to the sp(3)-hybridised amine in several instances, and confirmed the formation of mono-gold(I) imino- and aminophosphine complexes for four Au-complexes. Cytotoxicity studies in cancerous and non-cancerous cell lines showed a marked increase in cytotoxicity upon ligand complexation to gold(I).