Combined therapy of the antimetastatic compound NAMI-A and electroporation on B16F1 tumour cells in vitro.

Ruthenium complex NAMI-A [ImH][trans-RuCl(4)(DMSO-S)Im] (Im = imidazole) is a potential chemotherapeutic drug in cancer treatment. Electroporation can be used to facilitate delivery of NAMI-A into cells. Suspension of B16F1 tumour cells from mouse melanoma in NAMI-A solution was exposed to a train of electric pulses. The effect of NAMI-A was determined by examining cell viability in clonogenic test. Our results show that electroporation increases the otherwise scarce in vitro effects of NAMI-A, i.e. reduces cell viability. At the conditions chosen for experiments 90% of cells survived in the presence of 1 microM NAMI-A, whereas in a combined treatment with 1 microM NAMI-A and electroporation only about 10% of cells survived.