No abstract

The very promising results of Na-trans-[RuCl4(1H-indazole)2] (NKP-1339) in clinical studies have fuelled renewed interest in the research and development of ruthenium(III) coordination compounds for cancer therapy. By applying an improved synthetic approach to this class of coordination compounds, six new examples of the general formula (cation)-trans-[RuCl4(azole)2], where (cation) = tetrabutylammonium (Bu4N)(+) (1, 2), sodium (3, 4), azolium (5, 6), and azole = 1-methyl-indazole (1, 3, 5), 1-ethyl-indazole (2, 4, 6), have been prepared. All compounds have been characterized by elemental analysis, electrospray ionization (ESI) mass spectrometry, UV-vis-, and NMR-spectroscopy and, if possible, X-ray diffraction analysis. Furthermore, the influence of the alkyl substituent at the position N1 of the indazole backbone on the stability in aqueous media as well as on the biological activity in three human cancer cell lines (CH1, A549, and SW480) and on the cellular accumulation in SW480 cells is discussed.

Synthesis and X-ray diffraction structures of cis and trans isomers of ruthenium and osmium metal complexes of general formulas (nBu4N)[cis-MCl4(NO)(Hind)], where M = Ru (1) and Os (3), and (nBu4N)[trans-MCl4(NO)(Hind)], where M = Ru (2) and Os (4) and Hind = 1H-indazole are reported. Interconversion between cis and trans isomers at high temperatures (80–130 °C) has been observed and studied by NMR spectroscopy. Kinetic data indicate that isomerizations correspond to reversible first order reactions. The rates of isomerization reactions even at 110 °C are very low with rate constants of 10–5 s–1 and 10–6 s–1 for ruthenium and osmium complexes, respectively, and the estimated rate constants of isomerization at room temperature are of ca. 10–10 s–1. The activation parameters, which have been obtained from fitting the reaction rates at different temperatures to the Eyring equation for ruthenium [ΔHcis-trans‡= 122.8 ± 1.3; ΔHtrans-cis‡= 138.8 ± 1.0 kJ/mol; ΔScis-trans‡= −18.7 ± 3.6; ΔStrans-cis‡= 31.8 ± 2.7 J/(mol·K)] and osmium [ΔHcis-trans‡= 200.7 ± 0.7; ΔHtrans-cis‡= 168.2 ± 0.6 kJ/mol; ΔScis-trans‡= 142.7 ± 8.9; ΔStrans-cis‡= 85.9 ± 3.9 J/(mol·K)] reflect the inertness of these systems. The entropy of activation for the osmium complexes is highly positive and suggests the dissociative mechanism of isomerization. In the case of ruthenium, the activation entropy for the cis to trans isomerization is negative [−18.6 J/(mol·K)], while being positive [31.0 J/(mol·K)] for the trans to cis conversion. The thermodynamic parameters for cis to trans isomerization of [RuCl4(NO)(Hind)]−, viz. ΔH° = 13.5 ± 1.5 kJ/mol and ΔS° = −5.2 ± 3.4 J/(mol·K) indicate the low difference between the energies of cis and trans isomers. The theoretical calculation has been carried out on isomerization of ruthenium complexes with DFT methods. The dissociative, associative, and intramolecular twist isomerization mechanisms have been considered. The value for the activation energy found for the dissociative mechanism is in good agreement with experimental activation enthalpy. Electrochemical investigation provides further evidence for higher reactivity of ruthenium complexes compared to that of osmium counterparts and shows that intramolecular electron transfer reactions do not affect the isomerization process. A dissociative mechanism of cis↔trans isomerization has been proposed for both ruthenium and osmium complexes.

(1) with the respective lanthanide(III) (Gd, Tb, Dy) or yttrium(III) chloride. For the five new complexes, the coordination numbers eight or nine are found for the central metal ion. The compounds were fully characterized by elemental analysis, IR spectroscopy, single-crystal X-ray diffraction analysis, magnetic susceptibility measurements, and ESI mass spectrometry. In addition, compound 1 was studied by UV/Vis spectroscopy and cyclic voltammetry. The X-ray diffraction analyses revealed that the anionic complexes consist of a lanthanide or yttrium core bridged through oxalato ligands to four octahedral osmium-nitrosyl moieties. This picture, in which the central ion is eight-coordinate, holds for