New highly cytotoxic organic and organometallic bexarotene derivatives

Ruthenium(II) arene compounds modified with bexarotene, a retinoid that selectively activates retinoid X receptors, prepared by tethering bexaroten to the ruthenium fragment via an imidazole linker. Docking studies show that the interactions of these compounds with possible targets are significantly different to the binding mode of the parent drug.239