Oxovanadium(iv) complexes with non steroidal antiinflammatory drugs (NSAIDs): pharmacological relevance.

WILLIAMS PAM; ETCHEVERRY SB

Vanadium Biochemistry.

Año: 2007;

Non steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are a group of substances of different chemical structures, even though most of them are organic acids. The main pharmaceutical uses of these drugs are based on their anti-inflammatory effects. Several diseases, such as cancer, also show an inflammatory component and NSAIDs have also been used in the treatment of this disease. NSAIDs inhibited the cyclooxygenase enzymes, specially COX-2, chemotaxis, and the generation of free radical species. They also regulate the cellular growth in different culture systems and caused apoptosis induction. NSAIDs have been proven to be useful for the management of colon rectal carcinoma and also bone tumors both primary and metastasis, in different animal models. On the other hand, vanadium and its compounds exert promising antitumoral actions on in vivo and in vitro models. The main involved mechanisms seem to be the inhibition of protein tyrosine phosphatases and stimulation of protein tyrosine kinases. In our laboratory we have synthesized and characterized selected NSAIDs and vanadyl(IV) complexes. Their biological effects were tested on two osteoblast like cells in culture, a normal cell line (MC3T3E1) and a tumoral one (UMR106). Two of these compounds, the complexes with Aspirin (VOAspi) and Naproxen (NapVO) displayed interesting antitumoral properties in the osteoblasts in culture and merit further investigation to evaluate their application in the treatment of cancer.