Date of Submission

Spring 2022

Academic Program

Chemistry

Project Advisor 1

Craig Anderson

Abstract/Artist's Statement

Metformin hydrochloride, 1,1-dimethylbiguanide hydrochloride, is a diabetic medication that has been known to exhibit antimicrobial and anticancer properties. The mode of action for this compound with DNA and RNA is still not fully understood and established. To continue investigating these properties, metformin-containing transition metal complexes: [Cu(met)₂(H₂O)]Cl₂ (Cu65), [Ru(η6-p-cymene)(met)Cl]Cl (Ru79), [Ni(Met)₂]ClOH (Ni78) and [RuCl₃(DMSO)(met)]Cl (RR95) were synthesized and characterized by ¹H NMR, IR and UV-Vis spectroscopy. The rate of hydrolysis of the compound Ru79 at room temperature in solutions of pure water and PBS was investigated by UV-Vis and ¹H NMR spectroscopy, suggesting that the NH2 of the metformin loses a proton after 24 hours which could explain the mechanism of metformin in cells. Assays of motility inhibition by these compounds with yeast RNA have been performed. These showed the potential of the use of Ru79 as a treatment in RNA-centered diseases. More studies need to be conducted in order to draw definite conclusions. An investigation to the viability of these compounds in 2-PDT was conducted and it was concluded that these compounds would not be strong candidates. With further investigation, these compounds could demonstrate good potential as agents in the treatment of RNA-based diseases.

Open Access Agreement

On-Campus only

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

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