Synthesis, characterization, and in vitro evaluation of a potentially selective anticancer, mixed-metal [ruthenium(III)-platinum(II)] trinuclear complex

A new type of mixed-metal trinuclear complex containing platinum(II) and ruthenium(III) fragments that resemble both cisplatin and NAMI-A has been synthesized and characterized by IR, H-1 NMR, elemental analysis, and X-ray crystallography. The water-soluble compound Na-2{trans,cis,trans-[(RuCl4)-Cl-III(DMSO-S)(mu-pyz)](2)(PtCl2)-Cl-II} (AH-197, pyz = pyrazine) was assessed for its effects on DNA mobility and toxicity against human cancer cell lines. When compared to cisplatin and KP-1019 (which structurally resembles NAMI-A), IC50 results showed that AH-197 had an intermediate toxicity. When this data was coupled with a subsequent COMPARE evaluation (standard COMPARE queries resulted in insignificant correlation coefficients (<0.70) while very low COMPARE correlation coefficients were found in the matrix queries as well), AH-197 yielded a correlation coefficient of 0.19 when compared to cisplatin and 0.25 when compared to KP1019 indicating that AH-197 has a unique behavior.