Increasing the selectivity of biologically active tetranuclear arene ruthenium assemblies

A series of arene ruthenium metalla-rectangles has been synthesized and characterized. The cytotoxicity of all complexes has been established using three cell lines. The cationic complexes are highly cytotoxic, with IC50 values in the nanomolar range, and two complexes display good selectivity for cancerous over non-cancerous cell lines.151