Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2013 Nov 10:(81):e50767.
doi: 10.3791/50767.

Anticancer metal complexes: synthesis and cytotoxicity evaluation by the MTT assay

Nitzan Ganot  1 , Sigalit Meker, Lilia Reytman, Avia Tzubery, Edit Y Tshuva
Affiliations

Anticancer metal complexes: synthesis and cytotoxicity evaluation by the MTT assay

Nitzan Ganot et al. J Vis Exp. .

Abstract

Titanium (IV) and vanadium (V) complexes are highly potent anticancer agents. A challenge in their synthesis refers to their hydrolytic instability; therefore their preparation should be conducted under an inert atmosphere. Evaluation of the anticancer activity of these complexes can be achieved by the MTT assay. The MTT assay is a colorimetric viability assay based on enzymatic reduction of the MTT molecule to formazan when it is exposed to viable cells. The outcome of the reduction is a color change of the MTT molecule. Absorbance measurements relative to a control determine the percentage of remaining viable cancer cells following their treatment with varying concentrations of a tested compound, which is translated to the compound anticancer activity and its IC50 values. The MTT assay is widely common in cytotoxicity studies due to its accuracy, rapidity, and relative simplicity. Herein we present a detailed protocol for the synthesis of air sensitive metal based drugs and cell viability measurements, including preparation of the cell plates, incubation of the compounds with the cells, viability measurements using the MTT assay, and determination of IC50 values.

PubMed Disclaimer

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Niles AL, Moravec RA, Riss TL. Update on in vitro cytotoxicity assays for drug development. Expert Opinion on Drug Discovery. 2008;3:655–669. - PubMed
    1. Hatok J, et al. In vitro assays for the evaluation of drug resistance in tumor cells. Clinical and Experimental Medicine. 2009;9:1–7. - PubMed
    1. Wang D, Lippard SJ. Cellular processing of platinum anticancer drugs. Nature Reviews Drug Discovery. 2005;4:307–320. - PubMed
    1. Muggia F. Platinum compounds 30 years after the introduction of cisplatin: Implications for the treatment of ovarian cancer. Gynecologic Oncology. 2009;112:275–281. - PubMed
    1. Bruijnincx PC, Sadler PJ. New trends for metal complexes with anticancer activity. Current Opinion in Chemical Biology. 2008;12:197–206. - PMC - PubMed

Publication types

MeSH terms

LinkOut - more resources