Novel polypyridyl ruthenium complexes acting as high affinity DNA intercalators, potent transcription inhibitors and antitumor reagents

Six novel polypyridyl Ru(II) complexes have been found to bind DNA very tightly through intercalation and serve as high efficient DNA transcription and topoisomerase inhibitors. They have moderate cytotoxicity towards four tumor cell lines but very low cytotoxicity to normal cell, suggesting good potential as antitumor drugs.92