Research into cancer therapeutics has uncovered various potential medications based on metal-containing scaffolds after the discovery and clinical applications of cisplatin as an anti-cancer agent. This has resulted in many metallodrugs that can be put into medical applications. These metallodrugs have a wider variety of functions and mechanisms of action than pure organic molecules. Although platinum-based medicines are very efficient anti-cancer agents, they are often accompanied by significant side effects and toxicity and are limited by resistance. Some of the most studied and developed alternatives to platinum-based anti-cancer medications include metallodrugs based on ruthenium, gold, copper, iridium, and osmium, which showed effectiveness against many cancer cell lines. These metal-based medicines represent an exciting new category of potential cancer treatments and sparked a renewed interest in the search for effective anti-cancer therapies. Despite the widespread development of metal complexes touted as powerful and promising in vitro anti-cancer therapeutics, only a small percentage of these compounds have shown their worth in vivo models. Metallodrugs, which are more effective and less toxic than platinum-based drugs and can treat drug-resistant cancer cells, are the focus of this review. Here, we highlighted some of the most recently developed Pt, Ru, Au, Cu, Ir, and Os complexes that have shown significant in vivo antitumor properties between 2017 and 2023.

Chalcones isolated from natural sources are the primary metabolites of numerous biologically intriguing and pharmacologically essential drugs. Chalcones’ pharmacological properties are believed to result from a double bond conjugated to carbonyl functionality. This review aims to summarise the research findings, showing naturally occurring chalcones as a preferred scaffold in medicinal chemistry. Natural chalcones have an intense antimicrobial activity that targets many pathogens, including viruses, bacteria, fungi, and protozoa. Strong antibiotic qualities are exhibited by chalcones, including 4-hydroxyderricin, licochalcone A and C, isobavachalcone, and pinocembrin chalcone. Furthermore, chalcones are promising pharmacological agents for cancer treatment; they inhibit angiogenesis, decrease metastasis, and induce death in tumor cells via diverse mechanisms. Chalcones are also considered promising therapeutic agents for diabetes, neurodegenerative diseases, and cardiovascular diseases because of their anti-inflammatory and antioxidant characteristics and ability to modify enzyme functioning. This review emphasizes several aspects, such as the biosynthesis of chalcones, preparation of chalcone derivatives, isolation of chalcones, structural features of chalcones, structure-activity relationship study, the role of natural chalcones in managing various diseases and illustrates their action mechanism to control disease progression.

The most common cancer-related cause of death worldwide is colorectal cancer. It is initiated with the formation of polyps, which further cause the development of colorectal cancer in multistep phases. Colorectal cancer mortality is high despite recent treatment breakthroughs and a greater understanding of its pathophysiology. Stress is one of the major causes of triggering different cellular signalling cascades inside the body and which might turn toward the development of cancer. Naturally occurring plant compounds or phytochemicals are being studied for medical purposes. Phytochemicals’ benefits are being analyzed for inflammatory illnesses, liver failure, metabolic disorders, neurodegenerative disorders, and nephropathies. Cancer treatment with fewer side effects and better outcomes has been achieved by combining phytochemicals with chemotherapy. Resveratrol, curcumin, and epigallocatechin-3-gallate have been studied for their chemotherapeutic and chemopreventive potentiality, but hydrophobicity, solubility, poor bioavailability, and target selectivity limit the clinical uses of these compounds. The therapeutic potential is maximized by utilizing nanocarriers such as liposomes, micelles, nanoemulsions, and nanoparticles to increase phytochemical bioavailability and target specificity. This updated literature review discusses the clinical limitations, increased sensitivity, chemopreventive and chemotherapeutic effects, and the clinical limitations of the phytochemicals.

To ascertain the influence of binary ligand systems [1,1-dicyanoethylene-2,2-dithiolate (i-mnt⁻²) and polyamine {tetraen = tris(2-aminoethyl)amine, tren = diethylene triamine and opda = o-phenylenediamine}] on the coordination modes of the Ni(II) metal center and resulting supramolecular architectures, a series of nickel(II) thiolate complexes [Ni(tetraen)(i-mnt)](DMSO) (1), [Ni₂(tren)₂(i-mnt)₂] (2), and [Ni₂(i-mnt)₂(opda)₂]_n (3) have been synthesized in high yield in one step in water and structurally characterized by single crystal X-ray crystallography and spectroscopic techniques. X-ray diffraction studies disclose the diverse i-mnt⁻² coordination to the Ni⁺² center in the presence of active polyamine ligands, forming a slightly distorted octahedral geometry (NiN₄S₂) in 1, square planar (NiS₄) and distorted octahedral geometries (NiN₆) in the bimetallic co-crystallized aggregate of cationic [Ni(tren)₂]⁺² and anionic [Ni(i-mnt)₂]⁻² in 2, and a one dimensional (1D) polymeric chain along the [100] axis in 3, having consecutive square planar (NiS₄) and octahedral (NiN₆) coordination kernels. The N–H⋯O, N–H⋯S, N–H⋯N, N–H⋯S, N–H⋯N, and N–H⋯O type hydrogen bonds stabilize the supramolecular assemblies in 1, 2, and 3 respectively imparting interesting graph-set-motifs. The molecular Hirshfeld surface analyses (HS) and 2D fingerprint plots were utilized for decoding all types of non-covalent contacts in the crystal networks. Atomic HS analysis of the Ni⁺² centers reveals significant Ni–N metal–ligand interactions compared to Ni–S interactions. We have also studied the unorthodox interactions observed in the solid state structures of 1–3 by QTAIM and NBO analyses. Moreover, all the complexes proved to be highly active water reduction co-catalysts (WRC) in a photo-catalytic hydrogen evolution process involving iridium photosensitizers, wherein 2 and 3 having a square planar arrangement around the nickel center(s) – were found to be the most active ones, achieving 1000 and 1119 turnover numbers (TON), respectively.