Resumen: We report four dinuclear silver(I) and gold(I) complexes containing two different bidentate N-heterocyclic carbene ligands (bisNHC). One of these complexes 4, shows strong and selective anticancer activity against the human ovarian cancer cell line A2780. Mechanistically, 4 enhances the oxidative stress by stimulating reactive oxygen species production and inhibiting the scavenging activity of thioredoxin reductase. Our findings provide evidence that tuning ligand and electronic properties of metal-NHC complexes can modulate their reactivity and selectivity and it may result in potential novel anticancer drugs. Idioma: Inglés DOI: 10.1016/j.bmc.2022.116814 Año: 2022 Publicado en: Bioorganic and Medicinal Chemistry 67 (2022), 116814 [8 pp.] ISSN: 0968-0896 Factor impacto JCR: 3.5 (2022) Categ. JCR: CHEMISTRY, ORGANIC rank: 12 / 52 = 0.231 (2022) - Q1 - T1 Categ. JCR: BIOCHEMISTRY & MOLECULAR BIOLOGY rank: 150 / 285 = 0.526 (2022) - Q3 - T2 Categ. JCR: CHEMISTRY, MEDICINAL rank: 32 / 60 = 0.533 (2022) - Q3 - T2 Factor impacto CITESCORE: 6.4 - Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology (Q2) - Chemistry (Q2) - Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutics (Q2)