Tuberculosis is an ancient disease that is still present as a global public health problem. Our group has been investigating new molecules with anti-TB activity. In this context, inorganic chemistry has been a quite promising source of such molecules, with excellent results seen with ruthenium compounds. Nanostructured lipid systems may potentiate the action of drugs by reducing the required do...

Heteroaromatic compounds, such as 2,5-dimethylthiophene, 2,5-dimethylpyrrole, and 2,5-dimethylfuran, were found to act as reducing agents for the tris(2,2'-bipyridine)ruthenium(III), Ru(bpy)3(3+), chemiluminescent reaction. In order to characterize the chemiluminescent reaction of Ru(bpy)3(3+) with heteroaromatic compounds, we have investigated various mono-, di-, and tri-heteroaromatic compoun...

Xestoquinone (XQN) (3 x 10(-7) to 3 x 10(-3) M), isolated from the sea sponge Xestospongia sapra, induced a concentration-dependent Ca(2+) release from the heavy fraction of fragmented sarcoplasmic reticulum (HSR) of rabbit skeletal muscle with an EC(50) value of approximately 30 microM. On the basis of the EC(50), XQN is 10 times more potent than caffeine. Dithiothreitol completely blocked XQN...

Photocatalytic oxidation of organic compounds proceeded efficiently in a hybrid system with ruthenium aqua complexes as catalysts, BiVO4 as a light absorber, [Co(NH3)5Cl](2+) as a sacrificial electron acceptor and water as an oxygen source. The photogenerated holes in the semiconductor are used to oxidize molecular catalysts into the high-valent Ru(IV)=O intermediates for 2e(-) oxidation.

Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs) are currently attracting considerable attention because of their high light-to-electricity conversion efficiencies, ease of fabrication, and low production costs. Many recent efforts have been devoted to the development of new and efficient sensitizers that are suitable for practical use. Among the investigated compounds, ruthenium sensitizers have been disting...

Recent syntheses of ruthenium complexes of [2.2]paracyclophane provided a highly interesting class of compounds, the multilayered transition metal complexes of cyclophanes. The present study discloses that arene-metal exchange procedures with ferrocene derivatives, effected either photochemically or by Lewis acid catalysis, are convenient methods for preparing the analogous multilayered iron co...

Bis-adducts of 1,2,3,4-tetrahalo-5,5-dimethoxycyclopentadiene and 1,3-butadiene, generated in situ from 3-sulfolene, have been synthesized in excellent yield. Ruthenium catalyzed oxidation of the bis-adducts followed by a one-pot transformation of the resulting alpha-diketone furnished oxa-bridged compounds. Unambiguous stereochemical assignments of both diastereomeric series are reported.

Two hybrid compounds comprising an antimetastatic ruthenium-arene fragment tethered to an indazole-3-carboxylic acid derivative that inhibits aerobic glycolysis in cancer cells have been prepared and evaluated in a variety of cancer cell lines, including highly relevant human glioblastoma cells, with an apparent synergistic action between the two components observed.