Ruthenium(II) Carbosilane Dendrimers With Aliphatic Polyamine Ligands for In Vivo Antimelanoma Activity

Metastatic melanoma remains a major therapeutic challenge due to the limited efficacy of current systemic treatments, which is motivating the development of alternative drug delivery strategies. Herein, we report the synthesis and characterization of carbosilane metallodendrimers functionalized with Ru(II) complexes bearing norspermidine-derived ligands and evaluate their anticancer activity using malignant melanoma as a model of aggressive cancer. In vitro and in vivo studies demonstrate that these macromolecular systems exhibit enhanced antitumour activity compared with their mononuclear ruthenium counterparts. Notably, the second-generation metallodendrimer produced a remarkable antitumour response in vivo, reducing tumour mass by more than 65% after single administration. These findings indicate that the biological performance of these Ru(II)-based systems depends not only on the presence of multiple metal centres but also on the nanoscale dendritic architecture, highlighting the potential of metallodendrimers as macromolecular platforms for anticancer therapy.