Novel NHC-coordinated ruthenium(II) arene complexes achieve synergistic efficacy as safe and effective anticancer therapeutics
作者:Chao Chen、Chang Xu、Tongyu Li、Siming Lu、Fangzhou Luo、Hangxiang Wang
DOI:10.1016/j.ejmech.2020.112605
日期:2020.10
There is an urgent need for more effective, less toxic cancer therapy agents. Motivated by this need, we synthesized a small panel of N-heterocyclic carbene (NHC)-coordinated ruthenium(II) arene complexes Rul-Ru6 with the formula [Ru(p-cymene)(L)CIIPF6 (L = NHC ligand with varying substituents). Cell-based in vitro studies revealed that despite the structural similarity, Ru1-Ru6 exhibited distinct cytotoxic activities against cancer cells. In particular, Ru4 and Ru6, which bear n-octyl and pentamethylbenzyl motifs, respectively, were the most active at inducing apoptosis. In human ovarian A2780 cancer cells, Ru4 and Ru6 showed the highest cytotoxicities with IC50 values of 2.74 +/- 0.15 mu M and 1.98 +/- 0.10 mu M, respectively, and they were approximately 2-fold more potent than cisplatin (IC50 = 5.55 +/- 0.37 mu M). In addition to the cell killing capacity, inhibition of cell migration was validated by using these two optimized complexes. Mechanistic studies revealed that Ru4 and Ru6 complexes induced apoptosis in a caspase-dependent manner, primarily through intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) overproduction and cell cycle arrest at G1 phase. Furthermore, in a preclinical metastatic model of A2780 tumor xenograft, administration of Ru4 and Ru6 (20 mu mol/kg) resulted in a marked inhibition of tumor progression and metastasis. Finally, a substantially alleviated systemic toxicity was observed for both complexes in comparison with cisplatin in animals. Overall, this study greatly increases our understanding of NHC-coordinated Ru(II) arene metallodrugs, aiding further investigation of their therapeutic potential in the treatment of metastatic cancers. (C) 2020 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.