Studies of Anticancer Activities In Vitro and In Vivo for Butyltin(IV)–Iridium(III) Imidazole–Phenanthroline Complexes with Aggregation-Induced Emission Properties

Organotin­(IV) and iridium­(III) complexes have shown good application potential in the field of anticancer; however, the aggregation-caused quenching (ACQ) effect induced by high concentration or dose has limited the research on their targeting and anticancer mechanism. Then, a series of aggregation-induced emission (AIE)-activated butyltin­(IV)–iridium­(III) imidazole-phenanthroline complexes were prepared in this study. Complexes exhibited significant fluorescence improvement in the aggregated state because of the restricted intramolecular rotation (RIR), accompanied by an absolute fluorescence quantum yield of up to 29.2% (IrSn9). Complexes demonstrated potential in vitro antiproliferative and antimigration activity against A549 cells, following a lysosomal–mitochondrial apoptotic pathway. Nude mouse models further confirmed that complexes had favorable in vivo antitumor and antimigration activity in comparison to cisplatin. Therefore, butyltin­(IV)–iridium­(III) imidazole-phenanthroline complexes possess the potential as potential substitutes for platinum-based drugs.