Structural Consideration in Designing Organotin Polyethers to Arrest the Growth of Breast Cancer Cells In Vitro

• Main Authors: Girish Barot, Michael R. Roner, Charles E. Carraher Jr., Kimberly Shahi
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2011-04-01
• Series: Materials
• Subjects: tin-containing polymers; cancer; breast cancer; organotin compounds; organotin polyethers; estrogen receptor positive breast cancer; estrogen-independent breast cancer
• Online Access: http://www.mdpi.com/1996-1944/4/4/801/

The ability to inhibit cancer is inherent in organotin materials yet the structural relationships that regulate/direct this activity remains unknown. We measured antitumor activity using a matched pair of cell lines MDA-MB-231 cells that are estrogen-independent, estrogen receptor negative and MCF-7 cells, a cell line that is estrogen receptor (ER) positive. Those polyethers that contained a O-phenyl unit were able to significantly inhibit the non-estrogen sensitive cell line but were much less effective against the estrogen sensitive cell line; that is, the human breast cancer cell line MDA-MB-231 showed better test results for polymers derived from diols containing the O-phenyl moiety than the breast cancer cell line MCF-7, a well-characterized estrogen receptor positive control cell line. Those polyethers that did not contain the O-phenyl unit inhibited both cell lines approximately the same. The differential activity of the O-phenyl-containing polyethers is likely due to the estrogen-sensitive cells combining with some of the organotin polyethers minimizing their ability to inhibit cell growth.