Novel benzyl-substituted vanadocene anticancer drugs

From the reaction of 6-(p-methoxyphenyl) fulvene (1a), 6-(3,4-dimethoxyphenyl) fulvene (1b) and 6-(3,4,5-trimethoxyphenyl) fulvene (1c) with LiBEt₃H, lithiated cyclopentadienide intermediates (2a–c) were synthesised. These intermediates were then transmetallated to vanadium with VCl₄ to yield the benzyl-substituted vanadocenes bis-(p-methoxybenzyl)cyclopentadienyl] vanadium(IV) dichloride (3a), bis-(3,4-dimethoxybenzyl)cyclopentadienyl] vanadium(IV) dichloride (3b), and bis-(3,4,5-trimethoxybenzyl)cyclopentadienyl] vanadium(IV) dichloride (3c). The two vanadocenes 3a and 3c were characterised by single crystal X-ray diffraction. All three vanadocenes had their cytotoxicity investigated through MTT based preliminary in vitro testing on the LLC-PK (pig kidney epithelial) cell line in order to determine their IC50 values and compare them with the corresponding titanocene dichloride derivatives. Vanadocenes 3b–c were found to have IC50 values of 9.1 and 8.3 μM, while 3a showed a superior value of 3.0 μM, respectively.