In search of novel bioactive compounds as potential anticancer agents: Iodinated 4,4’-Bipyridines

A proof-of-principle exploration aiming to investigate the effectiveness of new iodinated compounds against melanoma cells

In the last decade, biological processes involving halogen bond (HaB) as a leading interaction attracted great interest. Iodinated 4,4’-bipyridines showed interesting properties as HaB donors in solution and in the solid state. This study, in collaboration with ICB-CNR and Strasbourg-CNRS, proposes de novo development of new anticancer drugs against cutaneous malignant melanoma (CMM) through a multidisciplinary approach based on multiple expertise of the participating team in molecular design, organic synthesis, computational chemistry, biochemistry, biology, and biomedicine. It aims to investigate the effectiveness of new iodinated compounds against melanoma cells. The results obtained so far confirmed the high potential of iodinated compounds in designing novel anti-melanoma therapeutics strategies considering the utilization of iodinated 4,4’-bipyridines as templates to design new promising HaB-enabled inhibitors of MM cell proliferation, paving the way for a new perspective in this field.