Table 1. IC50 values (μM) of guanidine-ruthenium(iii) complexes 3–8, amidine-ruthenium(iii) complexes 10–15, and cisplatin. Cells were treated for 72 h and cell viability was determined by the MTT assay.
| Complex | HeLa | A549 | MCF-7 | HepG2 | A2780 | A2780cisR | RF a | MRC-5 | SI b |
| 3 | 38.1 ± 2.1 | 47.8 ± 14.6 | 16.1 ± 1.1 | 37.0 ± 0.4 | — | — | — | — | |
| 4 | 27.1 ± 0.7 | 43.9 ± 3.8 | 15.0 ± 0.7 | 29.4 ± 2.1 | — | — | — | — | |
| 5 | 7.3 ± 0.6 | 14.3 ± 0.6 | 4.3 ± 0.2 | 15.7 ± 0.2 | 11.2 ± 1.8 | 13.5 ± 1.6 | 1.2 | 1.1 ± 0.2 | 0.1 |
| 6 | 54.9 ± 4.2 | 72.8 ± 10.1 | 36.2 ± 3.3 | 53.3 ± 6.1 | — | — | — | — | |
| 7 | 3.4 ± 0.3 | 6.6 ± 0.5 | 3.3 ± 0.3 | 7.7 ± 1.1 | 4.9 ± 0.2 | 4.0 ± 0.5 | 0.8 | >100 | >15.2 |
| 8 | >100 | >100 | >100 | >100 | — | — | — | — | |
| 10 | 10 ± 0.8 | 14.2 ± 0.7 | 16.0 ± 0.6 | 5.3 ± 0.9 | — | — | — | — | |
| 11 | 2.4 ± 0.1 | 2.7 ± 0.7 | 1.8 ± 0.2 | 3.4 ± 0.1 | 4.1 ± 0.4 | 4.0 ± 1.4 | 1.0 | 9.2 ± 2.6 | 3.4 |
| 12 | >100 | >100 | >100 | >100 | — | — | — | — | |
| 13 | 0.1 ± 0.003 | 0.3 ± 0.03 | 0.5 ± 0.04 | 0.6 ± 0.05 | 0.3 ± 0.01 | 0.2 ± 0.05 | 0.7 | 1.8 ± 0.2 | 6.0 |
| 14 | 57.9 ± 3.3 | 45.9 ± 3.7 | 44.4 ± 8.0 | 21.6 ± 2.5 | — | — | — | — | |
| 15 | >100 | >100 | >100 | >100 | — | — | — | — | |
| Cisplatin | 5.6 ± 0.1 | 2.9 ± 0.3 | 12.2 ± 1.6 | 2.6 ± 0.1 | 1.8 ± 0.6 | 11.6 ± 0.6 | 6.4 | 2.6 ± 0.3 | 0.9 |
aRF (resistant factor) is defined as IC50 in A2780cisR/IC50 in A2780.
bSI (selectivity index) is defined as IC50 in MRC-5/IC50 in A549.