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Ruthenium (II) Complexes Interact with Human Serum Albumin and Induce Apoptosis of Tumor Cells

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Abstract

The interaction of ruthenium (II) complex [Ru(bpy)2(mal)]2+ (RBM) and [Ru(phen)2(mal)]2+ (RPM) (bpy = 2, 2-bipyridine, phen = 1,10-phenanthroline, mal = malonyl carboxylate) with human serum albumin (HSA) has been investigated by using fluorescence, UV absorption and circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopy approaches. A strong fluorescence quenching reaction of complexes to HSA was observed and the quenching mechanism was suggested as static quenching according to the Stern–Volmer (S–V) equation. The number of binding sites n and observed binding constant Kb was measured by fluorescence quenching method. The thermodynamic parameters ΔH, ΔS, and ΔG at different temperatures were calculated and the results indicate the binding reaction is mainly entropy-driven and Vander Waals force played a major role in the reaction. The result of CD showed that the secondary structure of HSA molecules was changed in the presence of the ruthenium (II) complexes. Furthermore, the cell viability of ruthenium (II) complexes was evaluated by MTT and complex RPM has shown significant higher anticancer potency than RBM against all the cell lines screened. RPM showed a significant antitumor activity through induction of apoptosis in A549 cells.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (21171070, 21371075), the Planned Item of Science and Technology of Guangdong Province (c1211220800571), and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities.

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There are no conflicts of interest to declare.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemistry, Jinan University, Guangzhou, 510632, People’s Republic of China

    Jing Sun, Yongchao Huang, Chuping Zheng, Yanhui Zhou, Ying Liu & Jie Liu

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  1. Jing Sun
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  2. Yongchao Huang
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  3. Chuping Zheng
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  4. Yanhui Zhou
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  5. Ying Liu
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  6. Jie Liu
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Correspondence to Jie Liu.

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Sun, J., Huang, Y., Zheng, C. et al. Ruthenium (II) Complexes Interact with Human Serum Albumin and Induce Apoptosis of Tumor Cells. Biol Trace Elem Res 163, 266–274 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12011-014-0165-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12011-014-0165-7

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