Ruthenium(II)-arene complexes containing ferrocenamide ligands: synthesis, characterisation and antiproliferative activity against cancer cell lines

Abstract

This work deals with synthesis of new ferrocenamide ligands i.e. pyridine-2-carboxylic acid(4-ferrocenyl aniline)-amide, HL1 and quinoline-1-carboxylic acid(4-ferrocenyl aniline)-amide, HL2 and two new heterobimetallic Ru(II)-arene complexes of general formula [Ru(L)(h6 -arene)Cl] using synthesized ferrocenamide ligands (L1 ¼ pyridine-2-carboxylic acid(4-ferrocenyl aniline)-amide, h6 -arene ¼ p-cymene 1, and L2 ¼ quinoline-1-carboxylic acid(4-ferrocenyl aniline)-amide, h6 -arene ¼ p-cymene 3). These chloro-complexes have been substituted with 1,3,5-triaza-7-phosphoadamantane (PTA) which produce water soluble complexes of general formula [Ru(L)(h6 -arene)(PTA)]þ [2, 4]. All the complexes have been characterized thoroughly with different analytical tools and their antiproliferative activities have been evaluated against different cancerous cell lines. Among them, compound 3 has shown promising antiproliferative activity against all the cell lines, owing to its lower stability than the other complexes in solution as well as ability to interact with different biomolecules, which makes it a potential candidate as anticancer drug to investigate further.