Anti-cancer properties of ruthenium compounds: NAMI-A and Kp1019

Abstract

Cancer research is among the key challenges in current medicine and biology. Many decades of investigations have brought measurable benefits in both areas with regard to expanding the knowledge of the molecular mechanism of cancer and developing treatment strategies. Despite that cancers are still among diseases with the highest mortality rate, and cancer treatment is often unsuccessful and connected with severe side effects. The development of therapeutic strategies in both targeting the primary tumor origin and preventing metastasis is largely based on testing newly synthesized chemical agents, including a group of metal-containing complexes. It seems that ruthenium-containing complexes are of high potential in cancer therapy, and our work presents the current data about the application of ruthenium-based complexes − NAMI-A and KP1019 in cancer therapy.