Interest in antimicrobial gold complexes originated from the work of Robert Koch at the end of 19th century, who demonstrated that potassium dicyanidoaurate(I), K[Au(CN)₂], showed activity against Mycobacterium tuberculosis, a causative agent of tuberculosis. Subsequently, a large number of gold(I) and gold(III) complexes have been evaluated as possible antimicrobial agents against a broad spectrum of bacteria, fungi and parasites. The first part of the present review article summarizes the results achieved in the field of antibacterial and antifungal activity of gold(I) and gold(III) complexes. The represented gold(I) complexes have been divided into three distinct classes based on the type of coordinated ligand: (i) complexes with phosphine-type ligands, (ii) complexes with N-heterocyclic carbene ligands and (iii) various other gold(I) complexes, while the results related to the antibacterial and antifungal gold(III) complexes have been mainly focused on the organometallic-type of complexes. The second section of this article represents findings obtained from the evaluation of antimalarial activity of gold complexes against chloroquine-sensitive and chloroquine-resistant strains of Plasmodium falciparum parasite. Antimalarial gold(I) and gold(III) complexes have been divided into the following classes, based on the nature of the coordinated ligand: (i) complexes with chloroquine and its derivatives, (ii) complexes with N-heterocyclic carbene ligands, (iii) complexes containing functionalised alkynes and (iv) thiosemicarbazonato ligands, as well as (v) other gold(I) and gold(III) complexes. In the last section of the review, gold(I) and gold(III) complexes have been reported to be potential agents against parasites that cause amoebiasis, leishmaniasis and trypanosomiasis. A systematic summary of these results could contribute to the future design of new gold(I) and gold(III) complexes as potential antimicrobial agents.

The present review article highlights recent findings in the field of gold(III) complexes with amino acids, peptides and proteins. The first section of this article provides an overview of the gold(III) reactions with amino acids, such as glycine, alanine, histidine, cysteine and methionine. The second part of the review is mainly focused on the results achieved in the mechanistic studies of the reactions between gold(III) and different peptides and structural characterization of gold(III)–peptide complexes as the final products in these reactions. The last section of this article deals with the reactions of gold(III) complexes with proteins as primary targets for cytotoxic gold compounds. Systematic summaries of these results contribute to the future development of gold(III) complexes as potential antitumor agents and also have importance in relation to the severe toxicity of gold-based drugs.

Copper(II) and zinc(II) complexes with clinically used antifungal drug fluconazole (fcz), {[CuCl₂(fcz)₂]^.5H₂O}_n, 1, and {[ZnCl₂(fcz)₂]·2C₂H₅OH}_n, 2, were prepared and characterized by spectroscopic and crystallographic methods. The polymeric structure of the complexes comprises four fluconazole molecules monodentately coordinated via the triazole nitrogen and two chlorido ligands. With respect to fluconazole, complex 2 showed significantly higher antifungal activity against Candida krusei and Candida parapsilosis. All tested compounds reduced the total amount of ergosterol at subinhibitory concentrations, indicating that the mode of activity of fluconazole was retained within the complexes, which was corroborated via molecular docking with cytochrome P450 sterol 14α-demethylase (CYP51) as a target. Electrostatic, steric and internal energy interactions between the complexes and enzyme showed that 2 has higher binding potency to this target. Both complexes showed strong inhibition of C. albicans filamentation and biofilm formation at subinhibitory concentrations, with 2 being able to reduce the adherence of C. albicans to A549 cells in vitro. Complex 2 was able to reduce pyocyanin production in Pseudomonas aeruginosa between 10% and 25% and to inhibit its biofilm formation by 20% in comparison to the untreated control. These results suggest that complex 2 may be further examined in the mixed Candida-P. aeruginosa infections.

Five aromatic nitrogen-containing heterocycles, pyridazine (pydz, 1), pyrimidine (pm, 2), pyrazine (pz, 3), quinoxaline (qx, 4) and phenazine (phz, 5) have been used for the synthesis of gold(III) and silver(I) complexes. In contrast to the mononuclear Au1–5 complexes all having square-planar geometry, the corresponding Ag1–5 complexes have been found to be polynuclear and of different geometries. Complexes Au1–5 and Ag1–5, along with K[AuCl₄], AgNO₃ and N-heterocyclic ligands used for their synthesis, were evaluated by in vitro antimicrobial studies against a panel of microbial strains that lead to many skin and soft tissue, respiratory, wound and nosocomial infections. All tested complexes exhibited excellent to good antibacterial activity with minimal inhibitory (MIC) values in the range of 2.5 to 100 μg mL⁻¹ against the investigated strains. The complexes were particularly efficient against pathogenic Pseudomonas aeruginosa (MIC = 2.5–30 μg mL⁻¹) and had a marked ability to disrupt clinically relevant biofilms of strains with high inherent resistance to antibiotics. Moreover, the Au1–4 and Ag1–5 complexes exhibited pronounced ability to competitively intercalate double stranded genomic DNA of P. aeruginosa, which was demonstrated by gel electrophoresis techniques and supported by molecular docking into the DNA major groove. Antiproliferative effect on the normal human lung fibroblast cell line MRC5 has also been evaluated in order to determine therapeutic potential of Au1–5 and Ag1–5 complexes. Since the investigated gold(III) complexes showed much lower negative effects on the viability of the MRC5 cell line than their silver(I) analogues and slightly lower antimicrobial activity against the investigated strains, the combination approach to improve their pharmacological profiles was applied. Synergistic antimicrobial effect and the selectivity index of 10 were achieved for the selected gold(III)/silver(I) complexes mixtures, as well as higher P. aeruginosa PAO1 biofilm disruption activity, and improved toxicity profile towards zebrafish embryos, in comparison to the single complexes. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report on synergistic activity of gold(III)/silver(I) complexes mixtures and it could have an impact on development of new combination therapy methods for the treatment of multi-resistant bacterial infections.