ABSTRACT
Inorganic medicinal chemistry offers the development of bioactive metal compounds as a promising and attractive approach in the search for a pharmacological control of different diseases. This chapter focuses on the most relevant efforts carried out to develop ruthenium compounds as prospective agents for the treatment of not only cancer but also parasitic diseases of high prevalence. Ruthenium could show further potentiality in Medicinal Chemistry for the design of "organic-like" small drugs due to its ability to organize organic ligands in a specific three-dimensional way forming structures with defined shapes that could for instance simulate organic bioactive molecules or biomolecules. The binding of ruthenium antiparasitic compounds to transferrin could be a suitable "trojan horse" way of entrance of ruthenium-based antiparasitic drugs into the parasite. Related to cancer therapy, ruthenium compounds have shown broad diversity, in terms of activity, toxicity, and mechanisms of action.
