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The antitumour activity of the organometallic ruthenium(ii)–arene mixed phosphine complexes, [Ru(η6-p-cymene)Cl(PTA)(PPh3)]BF41b and [Ru(η6-C6H5CH2CH2OH)Cl(PTA)(PPh3)]BF42b (PTA = 1,3,5-triaza-7-phosphaadamantane), have been evaluated in vitro and compared to their RAPTA analogues, [Ru(η6-p-cymene)Cl2(PTA)] 1a and [Ru(η6-C6H5CH2CH2OH)Cl2(PTA)] 2a. The results show that the addition of the PPh3 ligand to 2a increases the cytotoxicity towards the TS/A adenocarcinoma cancer cells, which correlates with increased uptake, but also increases cytotoxicity to non-tumourigenic HBL-100 cells, thus decreasing selectivity. The decrease in selectivity has been correlated to increased DNA interactions relative to proteins, demonstrated by reactivity of the compounds with a 14-mer oligonucleotide and the model proteins ubiquitin and cytochrome-c. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract New promising compounds, derived from the esterification of hyaluronic acid with butyric acid, were investigated in vitro on a non-small cell lung carcinoma cell line (NCI-H460) and an its metastatic subclone (NCI-H460M). All new compounds exerted a dose-dependent inhibitory effect on both cell lines, which expressed CD44, the specific surface receptor for hyaluronic acid, in a very high percentage of cells (90%). HE1, the most effective of these compounds, was 10-fold more effective than sodium butyrate (NaB) in inhibiting cell proliferation. Similarly to NaB, after 24 hours of treatment, HE1 affected the expression of three cell cycle-related proteins (p27kip1, p53 and p21waf1) responsible for growth arrest, indicating that the presence of the hyaluronic acid backbone does not interfere with the biologic activity. Intratumoral treatment with HE1 demonstrated a marked efficacy on primary tumor growth and on lung metastases formation of the murine Lewis Lung Carcinoma model. Altogether, present findings suggest a possible clinical application of these novel butyric pro-drugs in primary and metastatic lung cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]