Ruthenium(II) polypyridyl complexes: versatile tools in the design of light-responsive therapeutic agents

The well-known side effects related to the use of commonly employed antitumoral drugs, along with the rising multidrug resistance of bacterial pathogens, make it urgent to develop new and effective antitumoral and antimicrobial agents. In this scenario, ruthenium(II) polypyridyl complexes (RPCs) are an appealing family of compounds due to their unique chemical-physical repertoires, which include light-triggered singlet oxygen sensitizing properties, a good ability to interact with key biological targets, and structural diversity, which enables access to various therapeutic modes of action through a careful selection of the ancillary ligands. The efforts in this thesis work were focused on the precise design of novel RPCs with peculiar features for their application both in Photodynamic Therapy (PDT) and Photoactivated Chemotherapy (PACT). The key benefit in each case is having the capacity to spatially and temporally regulate the drug’s activation using a light source, thereby improving the ability to distinguish between malignant and healthy tissues.