LAUSR

Nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) have chemopreventive effects in several cancer types, and the oxicam-based NSAIDs meloxicam and piroxicam exhibit potential to treat cancer. We prepared a series of novel oxicams and coordinated them to RuII(cym)Cl and OsII(cym)Cl moieties (η6-p-cymene = cym). The oxicam ligands acted either as monodentate N-donors or bidentate N,O-chelators, depending upon the ligand structure as well as reaction conditions such as the pH value and solvent used in the reaction. The cytotoxic activity of the complexes toward carcinoma cells was investigated. The isoxazolyl motif-containing ligand 1 and its complexes with RuII(cym)Cl 1a and the Os analogue 1b proved to have anticancer activity with IC50 values in a range similar to that observed for the RuIII investigational drug IT-139, and in general the Os compounds were equally or even slightly more potent than the Ru derivatives. Since meloxicam is known as a selective inhibitor of COX-2, molecular docking studies were carr...