Light Triggers the Antiproliferative Activity of Naphthalimide-Conjugated (η-arene)ruthenium(II) Complexes

Overview

Journal Int J Mol Sci

Publisher MDPI

Specialties Biochemistry
Chemistry
Molecular Biology

Date 2022 Jul 27

PMID 35886972

Authors

Franco Bisceglie

Giorgio Pelosi

Nicolo Orsoni

Marianna Pioli

Mauro Carcelli

Paolo Pelagatti

Silvana Pinelli

Peter J Sadler

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

We report the synthesis and characterization of three half-sandwich Ru(II) arene complexes [(η-arene)Ru(N,N')L][PF] containing arene = p-cymene, N,N' = bipyridine, and L = pyridine meta- with methylenenaphthalimide (C1), methylene(nitro)naphthalimide (C2), or methylene(piperidinyl)naphthalimide (C3). The naphthalimide acts as an antenna for photoactivation. After 3 h of irradiation with blue light, the monodentate pyridyl ligand had almost completely dissociated from complex C3, which contains an electron donor on the naphthalimide ring, whereas only 50% dissociation was observed for C1 and C2. This correlates with the lower wavelength and strong absorption of C3 in this region of the spectrum (λ = 418 nm) compared with C1 and C2 (λ = 324 and 323 nm, respectively). All the complexes were relatively non-toxic towards A549 human lung cancer cells in the dark, but only complex C3 exhibited good photocytoxicity towards these cancer cells upon irradiation with blue light (IC = 10.55 ± 0.30 μM). Complex C3 has the potential for use in photoactivated chemotherapy (PACT).

Citing Articles

Stimuli-responsive platinum and ruthenium complexes for lung cancer therapy.

Zhang C, Kang T, Wang X, Song J, Zhang J, Li G Front Pharmacol. 2022; 13:1035217.

PMID: 36324675 PMC: 9618881. DOI: 10.3389/fphar.2022.1035217.

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