Biological evaluation of water soluble arene Ru(II) enantiomers with amino-oxime ligands

Easily accessible enantiopure ruthenium compounds RRuRN-(1S,4R)- and SRuSN-(1R,4S)-[(η6-p-cymene)Ru{ĸNH(Bn),ĸNOH}Cl]Cl (Bn = benzyl, 1a and 1a′) are reported. Both isomers exhibit potent cytotoxicities in a variety of different cancer cell lines. Evaluation of 1a in a preliminary in vivo assay of PC-3 xenografts in nude mice resulted in an inhibition of tumor growth by 45%.188