Purpose: In this work, we present a recently developed ruthenium complex that shows anticancer activity in gallbladder cancer cells.
Methods: After the synthesis of the new ruthenium complexes, the antiproliferative, cytotoxicity, and apoptosis activities were evaluated in vitro by the triple assay ApoTox-Glo. Then, the transcription levels of genes related to apoptosis were evaluated by real-time PCR (q-PCR).
Results: The ruthenium complex, called Ru-UCN3, inhibits the proliferation of gallbladder cancer cells G-415 by means of apoptosis, which was demonstrated by the overexpression of the pro-apoptotic genes Puma, Diablo, and Caspasa-9 together with the repression of the anti-apoptotic genes Bcl-xL and Bcl-2. In addition, we found strong caspase 3/7 activity in the cells at 24 h of the Ru-UCN3 exposure, which was evaluated by the triple ApoTox-Glo assay.
Conclusion: The new ruthenium complexes evaluated had an inhibitory effect on G-415 cells. We think that Ru-UCN3 could be a promising anticancer agent, which should be explored with more in vitro and in vivo assays and probably with the chemical modulation of this molecule.
Keywords: Apotox-glo; Chemotherapy; Gallbladder cancer; Ruthenium complexes; qPCR.