Novel Kiteplatin Pyrophosphate Derivatives with Improved Efficacy

Two new Pt(II) derivatives of kiteplatin ([PtCl2(cis-1,4-DACH)]) with pyrophosphate as carrier ligand, one mononuclear (1) and one dinuclear (2), were synthesized with the aim of potentiating the efficacy of kiteplatin. Complex 1 resulted to be remarkably stable at physiological pH, but it undergoes a fast hydrolysis reaction at acidic pH releasing free pyrophosphate and (aquated) kiteplatin. The dinuclear compound 2 resulted to be less stable than 1 at both neutral and acidic pH forming 1 and (aquated) kiteplatin as first step. Both compounds (1 and 2) do not react as such with 5′-GMP, whereas their hydrolysis products readily form adducts with the nucleotide. The in vitro cytotoxicity assays against a panel of six human cancer cell lines showed that complex 2 affects cancer cell viability even at nanomolar concentrations. The cytotoxic activity of 2 is greater (up to 2 orders of magnitude) than that of cisplatin, oxaliplatin, and kiteplatin, whereas the mononuclear complex 1 has shown a cytotoxic activity comparable to that of oxaliplatin and kiteplatin, but higher than cisplatin. The latter result is not surprising, since the presence of two negative charges reduces the uptake of 1 into the tumor cells as compared to the neutral compound 2. The remarkable activity of 2 against the pancreatic cell line BxPC3 (average IC50 = 0.07 μM) deserves further investigation.