New Tailored RNA-Targeted Organometallic Drug Candidates against Huh7 (Liver) and Du145 (Prostate) Cancer Cell Lines.

New organometallic drug candidates [PhSn(HL)], , and [Ru(η---cymene)(HL)Cl], , were designed and synthesized by in situ reaction of a Schiff base ligand (HL) and diphenyltin dichloride and [RuCl(-cymene)], respectively. The drug candidates and have been characterized by spectroscopic methods (Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, UV-vis, and H/C NMR), elemental analysis, and single X-ray crystallographic studies (in case of ). The ground-state geometry optimization of and was performed by density functional theory calculations. The interaction of and with tRNA was assessed by absorption spectroscopy, cyclic voltammetry, circular dichroism, and ethidium bromide displacement assay using fluorescence emission spectroscopy to determine their potential to act as antitumor agents. The cytotoxicity of and was screened against human liver carcinoma (Huh7), prostate cancer (Du145), and the normal prostate cell line (PNT 2). The results implicated a dose-dependent growth inhibition of the two cancer cells at concentrations (2.5-15 μM) of and with the treatment after 48 h. Interestingly, revealed good selective activity toward the liver cancer cell line (Huh7). Furthermore, both the drug candidates and were found to be nontoxic toward the PNT 2 normal cell line. These studies lay a paradigm for rational efficacious drug design for chemotherapeutic intervention in cancers using new tailored organometallic drug entities; organotin(IV) and organoruthenium(II) have been demonstrated to be viable for the safe administration and specific targeted drug uptake by the resistant cancerous cell lines at low intracellular concentrations.