Solution chemical properties of two novel 8-hydroxyquinoline-D-proline and homo-proline hybrids were investigated along with their complex formation with [Rh(η-CMe)(HO)] and [Ru(η--cymene)(HO)] ions by pH-potentiometry, UV-visible spectrophotometry and H NMR spectroscopy. Due to the zwitterionic structure of the ligands, they possess excellent water solubility as well as their complexes. The complexes exhibit high solution stability in a wide pH range; no significant dissociation occurs at physiological pH. The hybrids and their Rh(η-CMe) complexes displayed enhanced cytotoxicity in human colon adenocarcinoma cell lines and exhibited multidrug resistance selectivity. In addition, the Rh(η-CMe) complexes showed increased selectivity to the chemosensitive cancer cells over the normal cells; meanwhile, the Ru(η--cymene) complexes were inactive, most likely due to arene loss. Interaction of the complexes with human serum albumin (HSA) and calf-thymus DNA (ct-DNA) was investigated by capillary electrophoresis, fluorometry and circular dichroism. The complexes are able to bind strongly to HSA and ct-DNA, but DNA cleavage was not observed. Changing the five-membered proline ring to the six-membered homoproline resulted in increased lipophilicity and cytotoxicity of the Rh(η-CMe) complexes while changing the configuration (L vs. D) rather has an impact on HSA or ct-DNA binding.