Novel water soluble Schiff base metal complexes: Synthesis, characterization, antimicrobial-, DNA cleavage, and anticancer activity

The Schiff base ligand, 4-nitrobenzaldehyde-glycylglycine (4-NBA-GG) and its Co(II), Ni(II), Cu(II), and Zn(II) complexes were synthesized and characterized by elemental analysis, mass, NMR, IR, electronic spectra, magnetic moment, molar conductance, ESR, CV, TGA, and powder XRD. All the complexes were found to be soluble in water. According to the spectral analysis, the 4-NBA-GG acts as a tridentate monobasic donor coordinating through the azomethine nitrogen, carboxylato oxygen and deprotonated peptide nitrogen atoms. The geometrical structures of these complexes are found to be octahedral. Antimicrobial studies of the synthesized compounds were evaluated and reported. The DNA cleavage activities were assayed against E. coli DNA, besides, anticancer activities was also studied towards human Colon Cancer Cells (HCT116) and cervical cancer cell line (HeLa). The obtained results showed that the complexes, especially Cu(II) and Zn(II) complexes strongly interact with E. coli DNA and active against both cancer cells.