Benzylamidine complexes of platinum(II) derived by nucleophilic addition of primary and secondary amines. X-ray crystal structure of trans-[PtCl2{Z-N(H)=C(NHMe)CH2Ph}2]

The reaction of cis- and trans-(PtCl2(NCCH2Ph)2 )with a 5-fold excess of MeNH2 and Me2NH in CH2Cl2 at -10°C affords in high yield the bis-amidine derivatives cis- and trans-(PtCl2(Z-N(H)=C(NHMe)CH2Ph)2) (1a, 2a) and cis- and trans-(PtCl2(EN(H)=C(NMe2)CH2Ph)2) (3a, 4a), respectively. The complexes were characterized by means of elemental analysis, multinuclear NMR and FT-IR techniques. The X-ray diffraction analysis was carried out for trans-(PtCl2(Z-N(H)=C(NHMe)CH2Ph)2) (2a). Moreover, the in vitro cytotoxicity for the new derivatives was evaluated in a wide panel of human tumor cell lines.