%0 Journal Article %T The Biological Side of Water-Soluble Arene Ruthenium Assemblies %A Bruno Therrien %A Julien Furrer %J Advances in Chemistry %D 2014 %R 10.1155/2014/589686 %X This review article covers the synthetic strategies, structural aspects, and host-guest properties of ruthenium metalla-assemblies, with a special focus on their use as drug delivery vectors. The two-dimensional metalla-rectangles show interesting host-guest possibilities but seem less appropriate for being used as drug carriers. On the other hand, metalla-prisms allow encapsulation and possible targeted release of bioactive molecules and consequently show some potential as drug delivery vectors. The reactivity of these metalla-prisms can be fine-tuned to allow a fine control of the guestĄ¯s release. The larger metalla-cubes can be used to stabilize the formation of G-quadruplex DNA and can be used to encapsulate and release photoactive molecules such as porphins. These metalla-assemblies demonstrate great prospective in photodynamic therapy. 1. Introduction Anticancer platinum complexes dominate the field of metals in cancer chemotherapy, mainly because of the considerable research effort that followed the fortuitous discovery of the anticancer property of cisplatin (Figure 1) in the late 1960s [1]. Unfortunately, the use of cisplatin is restricted because of severe dose-limiting side effects, which arise from the indiscriminate uptake of the drug into all rapidly dividing cells. Indeed the platinum atom is known to efficiently bind to serum proteins, especially human serum albumin (HsA) [2]. Once inside cells, aquated cisplatin species will mainly bind at the N7 position of guanine, leading to significant distortions of the DNA helix [3]. These DNA lesions are thought to prevent replication and transcription and ultimately to lead to cellular apoptosis [3]. Figure 1: The three platinum-based anticancer drugs, cisplatin, carboplatin, and oxaliplatin, which have gained worldwide marketing approval for humans [ 4]. The severe side effects of cisplatin have led to a massive investigation into the cytotoxicity and genotoxicity of platinum-based compounds, in order to elucidate their molecular mechanisms and identify key biomolecular targets for rational drug design [6¨C8]. In the 30 years since cisplatinĄ¯s first approval for human use, only two compounds have been approved worldwide (oxaliplatin and carboplatin, Figure 1) and another three gaining marketing approval in individual nations (Nedaplatin, Lobaplatin, and Heptaplatin) [4]. Currently, there are four mononuclear platinum drugs in various stages of clinical trials, with two of these being close to clinical recognition (satraplatin [9] and picoplatin [10]). Two other drugs (ProLindac and Lipoplatin) %U http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ac/2014/589686/