Ruthenium(II) piano stool coordination compounds with aminomethylphosphanes: Synthesis, characterisation and preliminary biological study in vitro.

Reaction of {[Ru(η6 -p-cymene)Cl]2 (μ-Cl)2 } (1) with aminomethylphosphane derived from morpholine (P{CH2 N(CH2 CH2 )2 O}3 (A), PPh2 {CH2 N(CH2 CH2 )2 O} (B)) or piperazine (P{CH2 N(CH2 CH2 )2 NCH2 CH3 }3 (C), PPh2 {CH2 N(CH2 CH2 )2 NCH2 CH3 } (D)) results in four new piano stool ruthenium(II) coordination compounds: [Ru(η6 -p-cymene)Cl2 (A)] (2A), [Ru(η6 -p-cymene)Cl2 (B)] (2B), [Ru(η6 -p-cymene)Cl2 (C)] (2C) and [Ru(η6 -p-cymene)Cl2 (D)] (2D). Every complex was fully characterized using spectroscopic methods (1 H, 13 C{1 H}, 31 P{1 H} NMR and ESI-MS), elemental analysis, X-ray single crystal diffraction and DFT calculations. Preliminary studies of in vitro cytotoxicity on the A549 (human lung adenocarcinoma) and MCF7 (human breast adenocarcinoma) cell lines revealed 2A-2D activity in the same order of magnitude as in the case of cisplatin. Additionally, the study confirmed the ability of 2A-2D to interact with DNA helix and transferrin.