Ruthenium complexes with purine derivatives: Syntheses, structural characterization and preliminary studies with plasmidic DNA

Two new chloride-dimethylsulfoxide-ruthenium(III) complexes, [RuIIICl4(DMSO)(H-Hypoxanthine)] (1) and [RuIIICl4(DMSO)[H-(N6-butyladenine)]] (2), have been prepared and structurally characterized by X-ray diffraction crystallography. The Ru(III)–hypoxanthine complex 1 is the first complex where monodentate coordination of hypoxanthine through nitrogen N(3) has been observed. Preliminary electrophoretic mobility and atomic force microscopy (AFM) studies show that both compounds interact with plasmidic DNA but the nature of the nucleobase seems to be important.