Kinetic studies of fluorocurcumin derivatives with anticancer activity

Two novel fluorocurcumin adducts with a difluoroboryl group exhibited activity in vitro against two bladder cancer cell lines, namely 5637 and SCaBER. The stability was evaluated under physiologically relevant conditions to mimic both the digestive tract and the bladder environment. Therefore, experiments were performed in hydrochloric acid at pH 1.2, and in buffer solutions with pH from 4.5 to 6.8 at 37°C. A validated HPLC method, allowing the monitoring of changes in substrates and products concentrations over time, was applied. Notably, the main decomposition product was the fluorocurcumin derivative without the difluoroboryl group. The decomposition of the fluorocurcumin adducts to the major products undergoes the pseudo-first-order kinetics reaction.