Study of the cytotoxic activity of alkenyl-substituted ansa-titanocene complexes

The cytotoxic activity on tumour cell lines, human adenocarcinoma HeLa, human myelogenous leukemia K562, human malignant melanoma Fem-x and normal immunocompetent cells, was tested for four different ansa-titanocene dichloride derivatives with potentially reactive substituents [Ti{Me(CH2double bond; length as m-dashCH)Si(η5-5Me4) (η5-C5H4)}Cl2] (1), [Ti{Me(H)Si(η5-C5Me4)2}Cl2] (2), [Ti{Me{(CH2double bond; length as m-dashCH)Me2SiCH2CH2}Si(η5-C5Me4)(η5-C5H4)}Cl2] (3) and [Ti{Me2Si(η5-C5Me4)(η5-C5H3(CMe2(CH2CH2CHdouble bond; length as m-dashCH2)))}Cl2] (4), showing a very promising activity and opening up the possibility of extensive investigation in this field.