2-Hydroxyanthraquinone substituted cyclotriphosphazenes: Synthesis and cytotoxic activities in cancer cell lines

Scientists continue to synthesize substances that have cytotoxic effects and examine their properties to overcome cancer for a long time. This study is aimed at preparing novel cyclotriphosphazene derivatives and examining their anti-cancer effects. For this purpose, the nucleophilic substitution reactions of 2,2-dimethyl 1,3-propanedioxy substituted cyclotriphosphazenes (3-5) with 2-hydroxyanthraquinone (6) were performed in the presence of cesium carbonate in acetone. Three novel anthraquinone substituted cyclotriphosphazenes (7-9) were obtained from these reactions. The molecular structures of the compounds (7-9) were characterized by MALDI-TOF MS, NMR (P-31 and H-1) and FT-IR spectroscopies. The cytotoxic activities of 2,2-dimethyl 1,3-propanedioxy and anthraquinone substituted cyclotriphosphazenes were investigated. We applied MTT assay to specify whether the all compounds are cytotoxic in the cancer cell lines (MCF-7 / DLD-1) and two non-cancerous cell lines (MCF-12A/CCD-18Co). All cells were incubated with (2.5-40 mu M) concentrations of the compounds for 24 h. The compound 3 and 9 were found to be highly effective against breast cancer and compound 4 was highly effective against colon cancer.