Comparative Anticancer Activity of Water-Soluble Organotin Poly(ethylene Glycol) Polyethers

By : Charles E. Carraher Jr, Girish Barot, Michael R. Roner, Kimberly Shahi

Page No: 123-133

Abstract
The synthesis of water-soluble organotin polymers allows the promise of ease of application of the materials in the treatment of cancer. The current study involves determining the ability of some of these water-soluble polymers to treat various cancers. These polymers are stable in water for a period of 30 weeks. Thus, they can be maintained in solution for ready application as a drug in treatment of cancer for at least a month. The polymers exhibit good inhibition of a wide variety of cancer cell lines including the two most widely employed pancreatic cancer cell lines. For all of the human cell lines (WI-38, MDA, HT29, MCF-7, AsPC-1 and PANC-1) the PEG 8000 and 10,000 polymers are less toxic, that is higher EC50 values, compared with the PEG 400 polymer. It is not known why this difference exists. The PEG 8000 and PEG 10,000 polymers have the highest chain length and it is possible that these polymers find it more difficult to enter into the cells to bring about their activity. This lowered toxicity is followed through for the healthy WI-38 cell line, as noted above, and so it is not evident if this lowered toxicity against the cancer cell lines is advantageous. Because they are water soluble, administration of the materials is possible through any of the usual administration routs. The polymers are rapidly made employing commercially available materials so are readily available.

Authors :
Charles E. Carraher Jr and Girish Barot : Florida Atlantic University, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Boca Raton, FL 33431 and Florida Center for Environmental Studies, Palm Beach Gardens, FL 33410
Michael R. Roner and Kimberly Shahi : University of Texas Arlington, Department of Biology, Arlington, TX 76010.