Numerous therapies for the treatment of cancer have been explored with increasing evidence that the use of metal-containing compounds could prove advantageous as anticancer therapeutics. Previous works on Ru(III) complexes suggest that structurally similar Co(III) complexes may provide good alternative, low-cost, effective prodrugs. Herein, a new complex, trans-[Co(imidazole)₄Cl₂]Cl (2), has been synthesized in high yields utilizing ligand exchange under refluxing conditions. The structure of 2 has been characterized by elemental analysis, ¹H and ¹³C·NMR, ESI-MS, CV, and UV-Vis. The ability of 2 to become reduced in the presence of ascorbic acid was probed demonstrating the likely reduction of the Co(III) metal center to Co(II). In addition, preliminary cell line testing on 2 shows a lack of cytotoxicity.

中文翻译：

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反式二氯四（咪唑）氯化钴（III）的合成和表征：具有潜在前药性质的新型钴（III）配合物。

越来越多的证据表明，使用含金属的化合物作为抗癌治疗剂可能证明是有利的，因此已经探索了许多治疗癌症的疗法。先前关于Ru（III）配合物的工作表明，结构相似的Co（III）配合物可能提供良好的替代，低成本，有效的前药。在此，利用配位体在回流条件下的交换，以高收率合成了新的复合物反式-[Co（咪唑）₄ Cl ₂ ] Cl（2）。2的结构已通过元素分析，¹ H和¹³ C·NMR，ESI-MS，CV和UV-Vis表征。2的能力在存在抗坏血酸的条件下被还原成还原态，表明Co（III）金属中心可能还原为Co（II）。另外，对2的初步细胞系测试显示缺乏细胞毒性。