Aldehyde Reduction via Mitochondria Targeting Iridium Complex

The human biological environment has built in ways to reduce and dispose of metabolic waste and other toxic buildup that is produced perpetually. For example, the body contains aldehyde oxidases, alcohol dehydrogenases, and enzymes to metabolize aldehydes. However, these pathways are limited or even halted under certain illnesses, such as cancer or Alzheimer's disease, as the body loses its capability to handle waste, resulting in toxic chemical buildup and further damage. In the event of lipid peroxidation, which is associated with Alzheimer's disease, oxidation of lipids causes a surge of aldehydes and free radicals to efflux throughout the body causing cell death. My project serves to find a synthetic pathway to creating an iridium-based metal catalyst, which reduces intracellular aldehydes and is mitochondria targeting. Ramifications of this project are the high cost of iridium, low IC50 of iridium catalysts, as well as lengthy synthetic procedure for the iridium complex.