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The idea of coordinating biologically active ligand systems to metal centers to exploit their synergistic effects has gained momentum. Therefore, in this report, three Ru III complexes 1 – 3 of morpholine-derived thiosemicarbazone ligands have been prepared and characterized by spectroscopy and HRMS along with the structure of 2 through a single-crystal X-ray diffraction study. The solution stability of 1 – 3 was tested using conventional techniques such as UV–vis and HRMS. Further, the anticancer activity of 1 – 3 was tested in HT-29 and HeLa cancer cell lines. To gain insight into their mechanism of action, the cytotoxicity, hydrophobicity, and the interaction of 1 – 3 with DNA and HSA were evaluated by different conventional methods such as absorption, fluorescence, and circular dichroism studies. Along with favorable biomolecule interaction, 1 – 3 revealed potent selectivity toward cancer cells, which is a prerequisite for the generation of an anticancer drug. According to cell viability results, 1 has the highest cytotoxicity among all in the group, against both cells, respectively. Additionally, the fluorescence-active ruthenium complexes selectively target lysosomes, which is evaluated by live-cell imaging. 1 – 3 disrupt the lysosome membrane potential by generating an excessive amount of reactive oxygen species, which results in an apoptotic mode of cell death.
Mohanty et al. (Tue,) studied this question.