Antitumor platinum(II) complexes containing platinum-based moieties of present platinum drugs and furoxan groups as nitric oxide donors: synthesis, DNA interaction, and cytotoxicity.

Six novel platinum(II) complexes 1-6 bearing different furoxan moieties as nitric oxide (NO) donors have been designed, synthesized, and characterized by elemental analysis and (1)H NMR, IR, and ESI-MS spectroscopy. The furoxan groups were introduced to the platinum complexes to release NO, which may take synergic action with the platinum-based moieties on the tumor cells. It was found that all compounds exhibited considerable cytotoxicity against human HCT-116 and SGC-7901 cell lines via DNA binding together with NO-releasing features, especially for compound 3. This finding is in accordance with the previous reports that NO hybrids show higher cytotoxicity against colon cancer cell lines compared with their parent compounds.