Ruthenium-arene complexes conjugated to ethacrynic acid were prepared as part of a strategy to develop novel glutathione-S-transferase (GST) inhibitors with alternate modes of activity through the organometallic fragment, ultimately to provide targeted ruthenium-based anticancer drugs. Enzyme kinetics and electrospray mass spectrometry experiments using GST P1-1 and its cysteine-modified mutant forms revealed that the complexes ore effective enzyme inhibitors, but they also rapidly inactivate the enzyme by covalent binding at Cys 47 and, to a lesser extent, Cys 101. They ore highly effective against the GST Pi-positive A2780 and A2780cisR ovarian carcinoma cell lines, are among the most effective ruthenium complexes reported so for and target ubiquitous GST Pi overexpressed in many cancers.
Vassily Hatzimanikatis, Daniel Robert Weilandt, Asli Sahin
David Lyndon Emsley, Jasmine Viger-Gravel, Michel Bardet, Julien Bras