A Water-Soluble Antimony-Rich Polyoxometalate with Broad-Spectrum Antitumor Activities

Abstract

Herein, a giant Sb-rich polyoxometalate (POM) {Sb₂₁ Tb₇ W₅₆ } is reported, which contains the largest number of Sb atoms in a POM so far. The Sb-rich POM has many interesting structural features and is a rare example of a soluble and water-stable giant POM. Biomedical studies indicate that the Sb-rich POM exhibits broad-spectrum antitumor activity against various cancer cell lines by reactivating the P53-dependent apoptotic processes and disrupting the mitochondrial membrane. In addition, this Sb-rich POM was capable of suppressing the growth and metastasis of a breast cancer in vivo. This work demonstrates that Sb-rich POMs are promising candidates for the development of new anticancer drugs.

Keywords: Antimony; Antitumor Agents; Antitumor Mechanism; Heterometallic Clusters; Polyoxometalates.