Coordination of Hydrazone Ligands to Arene Ruthenium(II) Derivatives: Synthesis, Characterization and Bioactivity

Hydrazones are an interesting class of Schiff’s bases thanks to their antimicrobial, anticonvulsant, analgesic and anti-inflammatory properties. Ru(II)-arene complexes have been widely taken into account for their potent and selective antitumoral activity. In the present work we exploit the coordination of hydrazone ligands to half-sandwich η6-arene Ru(II) derivatives for enhancing their antibacterial and anticancer properties. As a development of our previous work on ruthenium arene fragments coordinated to 4-acyl-5- pyrazolone and β-ketoamine ligands, we report the synthesis and full characterization of novel Ru(II)-arene complexes (arene = p-cymene, benzene or hexamethylbenzene) containing new hydrazone ligands with general structure HL’. Recent results on their biological activity will be reported.