5-carbethoxy-2-thiouracil (eitotH2) reacts with CuX (X= Cl, Br, I) halides to give the formula [CuX(eitotH)2]2 dinuclear complexes, while the formula [CuX(PPh3)2(eitotH)2] mononuclear mixed ligand complexes result when reaction is carried out in the presence of two equivalent of triphenylphosphine (PPh3). The new copper (I) complexes were studied against two tumor cell lines, A549 (human pulmonary carcinoma cell line) and HeLa (human epithelial carcinoma cell line) and one regular immortalized cell line, MRC5 (human fetal lung fibroblast). In comparison to the phosphine free ones that hindered cell proliferation only at relatively high concentration, the mixed ligand complexes with triphenylphosphine were found to be extremely cytotoxic.
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