Heteroleptic tris-chelate ruthenium(II) complexes of N,N-disubstituted-N′-acylthioureas: Synthesis, structural studies, cytotoxic activity and confocal microscopy studies

New heteroleptic tris-chelate ruthenium(II) complexes containing thiourea ligands were obtained and characterized on the basis of various methods including the single crystal X-ray technique. The stability of the complexes was investigated electrochemically by cyclic voltammetry. The cytotoxicity of the compounds was evaluated against tumor cells and normal fibroblast cells. A remarkable cell growth inhibition was observed for most of the compounds with lower IC50 values than cisplatin. Confocal microscopy images of the control tumor cells were compared with those of tumor cells treated with one of the complexes, supporting that these compounds are able to cause cell death by affecting the actin filaments instead of binding to DNA.