A bis-quinoline ruthenium(II) arene complex with submicromolar cytotoxicity in castration-resistant prostate cancer cells.

A new Ru(II) arene chlorido organometallic complex [(η--cymene)(L)RuCl]PF (named as pCYRuL) using 2-bis(quinolin-2-ylmethylene) hydrazine (L) was developed that exhibits potent anticancer activity against castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) (IC = 0.71 μM), and it is 45 times more effective than the standard drug cisplatin (IC = 31.3 μM) in a castration-resistant human prostatic adenocarcinoma cell line (PC-3) but non-toxic in normal human kidney cells (HK2) as well as normal breast cells (MCF10A) and found that pCYRuL exerted anticancer activity apoptosis induction and cell cycle arrest in the G2/M phase of PC-3 cells.