Furoxans and tocopherol analogs–furoxan hybrids as anticancer agents

Cancer is one of the main causes of death worldwide and the development of novel and effective drugs is still needed. We determined the antiproliferative and nitric oxide (NO)-releasing activity of furoxans and tocopherol analogs–furoxan hybrids by tandem assays in four cancer cell lines. To investigate the NO implications in the inhibition of cell growth, cells were pretreated with the NO scavenger hemoglobin and the genotoxic damage was determined. The compounds 1 and 3 emerged as good anticancer agents for bladder cancer treatment. The NO-releasing activity of these compounds appears to be necessary to obtain the antiproliferative effect. Although compound 1 exerted a slight DNA damage mechanism of action, compound 3 seemed to act in a different way. The low toxicity levels against normal cells point them out as a very promising scaffold for the further design of new anticancer agents.