A Novel Ruthenium(II) Complex With Lapachol Induces G2/M Phase Arrest Through Aurora-B Kinase Down-Regulation and ROS-Mediated Apoptosis in Human Prostate Adenocarcinoma Cells.

Lapachol is a well-studied natural product that has been receiving great interest due to its anticancer properties that target oxidative stress. In the present work, two novel lapachol-containing ruthenium(II) complexes [Ru(Lap)(dppm)(bipy)]PF6 (1) and [Ru(Lap)(dppm)(phen)]PF6 (2) [Lap = lapachol, dppm = 1,1'-bis(diphosphino)methane, bipy = 2,2'-bipyridine, phen = 1,10-phenantroline] were synthesized, fully characterized, and investigated for their cellular and molecular responses on cancer cell lines. We found that both complexes exhibited a potent cytotoxic effect in a panel of cancer cell lines in monolayer cultures, as well as in a 3D model of multicellular spheroids formed from DU-145 human prostate adenocarcinoma cells. Furthermore, the complex (2) suppressed the colony formation, induced G2/M-phase arrest, and downregulated Aurora-B. The mechanism studies suggest that complex (2) stimulate the overproduction of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and triggers caspase-dependent apoptosis as a result of changes in expression of several genes related to cell proliferation and caspase-3 and -9 activation. Interestingly, we found that N-acetyl-L-cysteine, a ROS scavenger, suppressed the generation of intracellular ROS induced by complex (2), and decreased its cytotoxicity, indicating that ROS-mediated DNA damage leads the DU-145 cells into apoptosis. Overall, we highlighted that coordination of lapachol to phosphinic ruthenium(II) compounds considerably improves the antiproliferative activities of resulting complexes granting attractive selectivity to human prostate adenocarcinoma cells. The DNA damage response to ROS seems to be involved in the induction of caspase-mediated cell death that plays an important role in the complexes' cytotoxicity. Upon further investigations, this novel class of lapachol-containing ruthenium(II) complexes might indicate promising chemotherapeutic agents for prostate cancer therapy.

Non-mutagenic Ru(ii) complexes: cytotoxicity, topoisomerase IB inhibition, DNA and HSA binding.

Herein we discuss five ruthenium(ii) complexes with good cytotoxicity against cancer cells. These complexes are named [Ru(tzdt)(bipy)(dppb)]PF6 (1), [Ru(mmi)(bipy)(dppb)]PF6 (2), [Ru(dmp)(bipy)(dppb)]PF6 (3), [Ru(mpca)(bipy)(dppb)]PF6 (4) and [Ru(2mq)(bipy)(dppb)]PF6 (5), where tzdt = 1,3-thiazolidine-2-thione, mmi = mercapto-1-methyl-imidazole, dmp = 4,6-diamino-2-mercaptopyrimidine, mpca = 6-mercaptopyridine-3-carboxylic acid, 2mq = 2-mercapto-4(3H)-quinazolinone, bipy = 2,2'-bipyridine and dppb = 1,4-bis(diphenylphosphino)butane. In vitro cell culture experiments revealed significant cytotoxic activity for 1-5 against MDA-MB-231, MCF-7, A549, DU-145 and HepG2 tumor cells, higher than that for the standard anticancer drug cisplatin. Compound/DNA interaction studies were carried out showing that 1-5 interact with DNA by electrostatic force of attraction or by hydrogen bonding. Moreover, the complexes interact, moderately and spontaneously, with human serum albumin (HSA) through the hydrophobic region. The five complexes are able to inhibit the DNA supercoiled relaxation mediated by human topoisomerase IB (TopIB), and complex 1 is found to be the most efficient TopIB inhibitor among the five compounds. The inhibitory effect and analysis of different steps of the TopIB catalytic cycle indicate that complex 1 inhibits the cleavage reaction impeding the binding of the enzyme to DNA and has no effect on the religation step. Complexes 1, 2 and 3 did not show mutagenic activity when they were evaluated by the cytokinesis-block micronucleus cytome assay in HepG2 cells and the Ames test in the presence and absence of mouse liver S9 metabolic activation. Therefore, it is necessary to perform further in-depth analysis of the therapeutic potential of these promising ruthenium complexes as anticancer drugs.

Determination of in vitro absorption in Caco-2 monolayers of anticancer Ru(II)-based complexes acting as dual human topoisomerase and PARP inhibitors.

Due to their unique and versatile biochemical properties, ruthenium-based compounds have emerged as promising anticancer agents. Previous studies showed that three ruthenium(II) compounds: [Ru(pySH)(bipy)(dppb)]PF6 (1), [Ru(HSpym)(bipy)(dppb)]PF6 (2) and Ru[(SpymMe2)(bipy)(dppb)]PF6 (3) presented anticancer properties higher than doxorubicin and cisplatin and acted as human topoisomerase IB (Topo I) inhibitors. Here, we focused our studies on in vitro intestinal permeability and anticancer mechanisms of these three complexes. Caco-2 permeation studies showed that 1 did not permeate the monolayer of intestinal cells, suggesting a lack of absorption on oral administration, while 2 and 3 permeated the cells after 60 and 120 min, respectively. Complexes 2 and 3 fully inhibited Topo II relaxation activity at 125 µM. In previously studies, 3 was the most potent inhibitor of Topo I, here, we concluded that it is a dual topoisomerase inhibitor. Moreover, it presented selectivity to cancer cells when evaluated by clonogenic assay. Thus, 3 was selected to gene expression assay front MDA-MB-231 cells from triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), which represents the highly aggressive subgroup of breast cancers with poor prognosis. The analyses revealed changes of 27 out of 84 sought target genes. PARP1 and PARP2 were 5.29 and 1.83 times down-regulated after treatment with 3, respectively. PARPs have been attractive antitumor drug targets, considering PARP inhibition could suppress DNA damage repair and sensitize tumor cells to DNA damage agents. Recent advances in DNA repair studies have shown that an approach that causes cell lethality using synthetic PARP-inhibiting drugs has produced promising results in TNBC.

Human topoisomerase inhibition and DNA/BSA binding of Ru(II)-SCAR complexes as potential anticancer candidates for oral application.

Three ruthenium(II) phosphine/diimine/picolinate complexes were selected aimed at investigating anticancer activity against several cancer cell lines and the capacity of inhibiting the supercoiled DNA relaxation mediated by human topoisomerase IB (Top 1). The structure-lipophilicity relationship in membrane permeability using the Caco-2 cells have also been evaluated in this study. SCAR 5 was found to present 45 times more cytotoxicity against breast cancer cell when compared to cisplatin. SCAR 4 and 5 were both found to be capable of inhibiting the supercoiled DNA relaxation mediated by Top 1. Interaction studies showed that SCAR 4 and 5 can bind to DNA through electrostatic interactions while SCAR 6 is able to bind covalently to DNA. The complexes SCAR were found to interact differently with bovine serum albumin (BSA) suggesting hydrophobic interactions with albumin. The permeability of all complexes was seen to be dependent on their lipophilicity. SCAR 4 and 5 exhibited high membrane permeability (P app  > 10 × 10-6 cm·s-1) in the presence of BSA. The complexes may pass through Caco-2 monolayer via passive diffusion mechanism and our results suggest that lipophilicity and interaction with BSA may influence the complexes permeation. In conclusion, we demonstrated that complexes have powerful pharmacological activity, with different results for each complex depending on the combination of their ligands.