Studies on the cytotoxicity and anticancer performance of heterocyclic hypervalent organobismuth(III) compounds.
Liu YP, Lei J, Tang LW, Peng Y, Au CT, Chen Y, Yin SF.
Novel organobismuth(III) complex of 5H-dibenzo[c,f][1,5]oxabismocin-12(7H)-yl nitrate (C2) was synthesized and characterized by spectral and elemental analysis. It was compared with other five C,E,C-chelating (E = N, O, S) organobismuth(III) complexes against human adenocarcinoma alveolar basal epithelial cells (A549), human liver cancer cell line (SMCC7721), human gastric cancer cell line (SGC-7901), human colon adenocarcinoma cell line (SW480) and healthy human bronchial cell line (16HBE14o-) in vitro. It was found that C2 exhibited the best anticancer activity. Further mechanistic investigation indicated that toxicological activity of C2 was ascribable to apoptosis rather than anti-proliferative activity. Apoptosis was induced through up-regulating the level of Bcl-2/Bax as well as the activation of caspase-3. The results demonstrate that heterocyclic organobismuth(III) complexes of this type have great potential in the treatment of cancer.