Anticancer activity of lanthanum (III) and europium (III) 5‐fluorouracil complexes on Caco‐2 cell line

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 Δ G ° , Δ H ° and Δ S ° 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.