ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses several facets of ruthenium complexes with greater emphasis on the cytotoxicity correlated with their binding with DNA and subsequently DNA cleavage. The advantage of using ruthenium in the development of metal-based antitumor drugs has been considered in a number of excellent reviews. Briefly, the benefits of exploiting ruthenium include a well-developed preparative coordination chemistry of this transition metal, providing reliable routes to novel compounds; a rate of ligand exchange often comparable to that of platinum or which can be tuned by coordination of appropriate ancillary ligands. Studies of medicinal applications of ruthenium complexes have been facilitated by the wide diversity of the coordination and organometallic chemistry of ruthenium. Dimethyl sulfoxide complexes of both ruthenium(II) and ruthenium(III) exhibit antitumor activity comparable to cisplatin at equitoxic dosage in animal models of metastasizing tumors, but with less severe side effects and prolonged host survival times.
