Antiparasitic activities of bimetallic N-heterocyclic carbene gold(I) complexes with ferrocene ligands: Relevance of chlorido and phosphino ligands

Gold(I) complexes carrying imidazole-2-ylidene ligands and ferrocene substituents were prepared. Their activities against protozoal Leishmania major and Toxoplasma gondii parasites were analyzed. Certain gold(I) complexes with chlorido and 1,1′-bis(triphenylphosphino)ferrocene ligands revealed promising antiparasitic effects. The new chlorido complexes 5b and 5c showed high activities against T. gondii tachyzoites and L. major promastigotes while the new ferrocene-bridged bis-gold(I) complexes 8a and 8b were particularly active against L. major amastigotes and considerably selective as to toxicity results from Vero cells and macrophages.