Abstract

Lanthanide complexes are of increasing importance in cancer diagnosis and therapy. In the present study 1:1 and 1:3 solid complexes of La (III)–5-FU (5-fluorouracil) were prepared and characterized. In solution, the formation of 1:1 La (III) and Eu (III) complexes enabled the enhancement of 5-FU's effectiveness. Binding constants of the 1:1 complexes of both metals were estimated using spectrophotometry and HPLC with fluorescence detection methods. The thermodynamic parameters ΔG , ΔH and ΔS were calculated using differential scanning calorimetry. Evaluation of the cytotoxic activity of the 1:1 La (III)- and Eu (III)–5-FU complexes was performed through two methodologies, trypan blue for cell viability where La (III)- and Eu (III)–5-FU complexes were found to have 52,000 and 80,000 dead cells, respectively, and via flow cytometric analysis to measure the apoptotic values, which were found to be 59.87 and 86.86% respectively.