Ruthenium(III) complexes are promising anticancer metallodrugs because of their antimetastatic (migrastatic) potential and significantly lower host toxicity than generally used platinum metallodrugs. On the other hand, the ruthenium(III) complexes generally show low solubility and stability in an aqueous environment but exhibit some toxicity associated with unspecific delivery. For these reasons, numerous ongoing studies deal with their encapsulation into various delivery systems to maximize their therapeutic efficacy. One of these systems can also be crystals of nontoxic metal-organic frameworks (MOFs). In this work, we studied incorporation of a bioactive ruthenium(III) complex (RuC) inside MOFs derived from γ-cyclodextrin (γ-CD) and biocompatible potassium ions, forming CD-MOF-1. Viability studies in vitro were carried out using spheroids of human hepatoblastoma cell line HepG2. These studies revealed that the RuC-CD-MOF-1 system provides effective cancer cell suppression through slow gradual release over a longer period (>10 days) while reducing acute cytotoxic effects associated with naked RuC. This combination was defined for further development and optimization as a drug-delivery platform for metallodrugs.

CEITEC Central European Institute of Technology Masaryk University Kamenice 5 62500 Brno Czechia

College of Chemistry Central China Normal University 152 Luoyu Road Wuhan 430079 China

Department of Chemistry Faculty of Science Masaryk University Kamenice 5 62500 Brno Czechia

Department of Chemistry University of Jyvaskyla P O Box 35 40014 Jyväskylä Finland

Department of Natural Drugs Faculty of Pharmacy Masaryk University 61200 Brno Czechia

RECETOX Faculty of Science Masaryk University Kotlářská 2 61137 Brno Czechia

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