Cellular uptake, cytotoxicity, apoptosis and DNA-binding investigations of Ru(II) complexes

• The synthesis and characterization of new compounds has been described.
• DNA binding studies reveal that these compounds bind to CT DNA via intercalation.
• MTT assay of the compounds show prominent anticancer activity against various cancer cells.
• The cellular uptake was observed under confocal microscopy.
• The apoptotic studies were carried out using flow cytometer using Nexin reagent.

Three new compounds, [Ru(Hdpa)2PyIP](ClO4)2·2H2O (1) [Ru(Hdpa)2FyIP](ClO4)2·2H2O (2) and [Ru(Hdpa)2IIP](ClO4)2·2H2O (3) have been synthesized and characterized by spectroscopic techniques such as elemental analysis, UV/Vis, FT-IR, 1H NMR, 13C NMR and mass spectra. The CT-DNA binding properties of 1–3 have been investigated by absorption, emission spectroscopy and viscosity measurements. Experimental results suggested that they can interact with DNA through intercalative mode with different binding strengths. These were found to promote the cleavage of plasmid DNA. Cell viability results indicated that all compounds showed significant dose dependent cytotoxicity in selected cell lines and 1 shown higher cytotoxicity than cisplatin on HeLa cells. Cellular uptake studies were studied by flow cytometry and confocal microscopy.

Compounds 1–3 exhibited dose-dependent growth inhibitory effect against the tested cell lines. The cell viability was concentration-dependent with increasing the concentrations a decrease in cell viability was observed. Figure optionsDownload as PowerPoint slide