Organometallic compounds have been widely used as cytotoxic materials for cancer cells and have provided promising results in the treatment for cancer. Organotins specifically result in a good variant as they are very cytotoxic, although they lack cytoselectivity. On the other hand, cytotoxic compounds of ruthenium have shown a low cytotoxic activity, but high cytoselectivity. It was hypothesized that the creation of a ruthenium-tin-chlorine backbone should yield both cytotoxic and cytoselectivity. As  a  preliminary study we have used some tetrahedral and octahedral tin compounds dissolved in DMSO at milli-/micro-molar concentrations and tested against different cell lines, including MDA-MB231 cancer cell lines, grown on DMEM media. The techniques used were the classic cytotoxic assays with readings after 24 and 48 hours using Propidium iodide and Hoechst staining to determine the cytotoxicity.  The most cytotoxic tetrahedral compounds are [(C5H5)Fe(CO)2]2SnMe2 with a CC50 of 0.107 milimolar, (t-butyl)2SnCl2 with a CC50 of 0.33 milimolar, and [(C5H5)Fe(CO)2]Sn(t-butyl)2Cl with a CC50 of 0.74 milimolar. The observation of the activity of the iron-tin complex not containing the normally requisite Sn-Cl bond is a novel result from the literature.  Four molecules that have an octahedral geometry have been synthesized with three of them having a general framework [(o-MeEC6H4)CH2]2SnCl2 where E = O, S, CH2. The usage of those octahedral molecules has indicated that the tetrahedral geometry is required to maintain a high cytotoxicity.

Tetrahedral and octahedral organotins showing a dependence on geometry for activity as biocides

247th National Meeting (2014)

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