A new scheme for rational design and synthesis of polyoxovanadate hybrids with high antitumor activities.

Abstract A new strategy to construct polyoxovanadate hybrids incorporating amino acid esters in mild conditions was presented in this paper. These new hybrids were not only structurally determined by Single Crystal X-Ray diffraction, but also exhibited higher antitumor activities against laryngeal carcinoma, rhabdomyoma, and breast adenocarcinoma tumor cells compared with the traditional commercial medicine 5-fluorouracil. These results would provide a promising lead scaffold for further design and synthesis of potential anticancer agents. Graphical abstract Two new polyoxometalate hybrids with amino acid ligands were successfully prepared which exhibited high antitumor activity against three tumor cells, providing a new scheme to rationally design polyoxovanadate-based drugs. Unlabelled Image Highlights • New methodology for rational design of polyoxovanadate (POV)-based bioactive materials • The POV-amino acid hybrids show interesting supramolecular assemblies. • The products exhibited enhanced antitumor activities against three tumor cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]