ISBN: 978-83-60043-10-3 - eurobic9

Eurobic9, 2-6 September, 2008, Wrocław, Poland
P72. Functionalized Cytotoxic Ruthenium(II) Arene Complexes
A. Habtemariam a , P.C.A. Bruijnincx b , P.J. Sadler b
a Chemistry, University of Warwick, Gibett Hill Road, CV4 7AL, Coventry, United Kingdom
e-mail: a.habtemariam@warwick.ac.uk
b Chemistry, University of Warwick, Gibett Hill Road, CV4 7AL, Coventry, United Kingom
Organometallic half-sandwich Ruthenium(II) arenes of the type [(η6- arene)Ru(YZ)(X)]+ where YZ is
typically a chelating diamine ligand (e.g. ethylenediamine, en) and X is a halide (e.g. Cl) exhibit anticancer
activity in vitro and in vivo.[1, 2]
A number of design features are inherent in these classes of compounds. Systematic variations of the
coordinated arene, and the mono- and bidentate ligands can result in complexes having preselected, desirable
features. A number of organometallic Ru(II) arene complexes bearing versatile functional groups, are being
synthesised in our laboratory with a view to generate bimetallic and hetero-bimetallic complexes. In addition
these transformations may enable us to explore the possibility of tuning the selectivity of the compounds in their
interaction with biomolecules by attaching an appropriate probe. The inclusion of specific markers such as
fluorescent dyes may aid in studies of the biodistribution of complexes. The results of these studies will be
discussed in this presentation.
Acknowledgement: We thank NWO (fellowship for PCAB for support and members of COST Action D39 for
discussion.
References:
[1] Habtemariam, A., Melchart, M., Fernandez, R., Parsons, S., Oswald, I. D. H., Parkin, A., Fabbiani, F. P. A.,
Davidson, J. E., Dawson, A., Aird, R. E., Jodrell, D. I., Sadler, P. J. (2006) J. Med. Chem. 49, 6858-6868.
[2] Yan, Y. K., Melchart, M., Habtemariam, A., Sadler, P. J. (2005) Chem. Commun., 4764-4776.
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