• silver carbene
• gold carbene
• anticancer compounds
• metal-based drugs
• cytotoxicity

A series of new gold(I) and silver(I) N-heterocyclic carbenes bearing a 1-Thio-β-D-glucose tetraacetate moiety has been synthesized and chemically characterised. The stability and solubility of these compounds have been investigated employing several analytical techniques. Interaction experiments with biologically relevant macromolecules, i.e. superoxide dismutase (SOD) and human serum albumin (HSA), have been conducted via UV-Vis absorption spectroscopy and ESI mass spectrometry. The cytotoxicity of the compounds has been evaluated in the ovarian cancer cell lines A2780 and A2780/CDDP-R (cisplatin-resistant) and in the healthy cell line HSkMC (human skeletal muscle cells). The results of these investigations have highlighted that the gold complexes are more stable in aqueous environment and capable of interaction with SOD, while the silver ones undergo structural alterations in aqueous medium and possess a greater antiproliferative activity.