LAUSR

Abstract Scientists continue to synthesize substances that have cytotoxic effects and examine their properties to overcome cancer for a long time. This study is aimed at preparing novel cyclotriphosphazene derivatives and examining their anti-cancer effects. For this purpose, the nucleophilic substitution reactions of 2,2-dimethyl 1,3-propanedioxy substituted cyclotriphosphazenes (3–5) with 2-hydroxyanthraquinone (6) were performed in the presence of cesium carbonate in acetone. Three novel anthraquinone substituted cyclotriphosphazenes (7–9) were obtained from these reactions. The molecular structures of the compounds (7–9) were characterized by MALDI-TOF MS, NMR (31P and 1H) and FT-IR spectroscopies. The cytotoxic activities of 2,2-dimethyl 1,3-propanedioxy and anthraquinone substituted cyclotriphosphazenes were investigated. We applied MTT assay to specify whether the all compounds are cytotoxic in the cancer cell lines (MCF-7 / DLD-1) and two non-cancerous cell lines (MCF-12A/CCD-18Co). All cells were incubated with (2.5–40 µM) concentrations of the compounds for 24 h. The compound 3 and 9 were found to be highly effective against breast cancer and compound 4 was highly effective against colon cancer.