According to the American Cancer Society’s Cancer Facts and Figures there will be an estimated 1.6 million new cases of cancer in 2016. Many treatments are currently available however they exhibit serious side effects due to poor selectivity. Efforts to create safer anticancer therapies and limit undesired side effects include the development of site-directed treatments. We have developed a series of ruthenium complexes of the type [Ru(N,N’)2(6,6’-dihydroxhybipyridine)]2+ as potential anticancer prodrugs. These complexes are cytotoxic when exposed to light but maintain low toxicity in the dark. Rate of photo-dissociation is increased in acidic conditions but are relatively stable at neutral pH values. Since cancer cells are known to have a lower pH due to increased metabolism, we hypothesize that our complexes exhibit selective cytotoxicity when in the presence of cancer cells and activated by blue light. This method is similar to photodynamic therapy (PDT), which is FDA approved. We will present our studies of several new complexes of the type [Ru(N,N’)2(6,6’-dihydroxhybipyridine)]2+ as potential anticancer prodrugs activated in the presence of light. These studies will include synthesis, characterization, photo-dissociation kinetics, viability studies with cell culture, and mode of action studies.

Ruthenium complexes as potential anticancer prodrugs that are activated by low pH and light

253rd National Meeting (2017)

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