Synthesis, characterization, and in vitro antioxidant and anticancer studies of ruthenium(III) complexes of symmetric and asymmetric tetradentate Schiff bases

Abstract

Ruthenium(III) complexes of three tetradentate Schiff bases with N₂O₂ donors formulated as [RuCl(LL¹)(H₂O)], [RuCl(LL²)(H₂O)] and [RuCl(LL³)(H₂O)] were synthesized and characterized by elemental analyses, molar conductance, FTIR, and electronic spectral measurements. The FTIR data showed that the tetradentate Schiff base ligands coordinate to Ru ions through the azomethine nitrogen and enolic oxygen. The antioxidant activities of the complexes were investigated through scavenging activity on 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) and 2,2′-azinobis-3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid (ABTS) radicals. The DPPH activity for [RuCl(LL²)(H₂O)] with IC₅₀ = 0.031 mg mL⁻¹ was higher than the values obtained for the other Ru(III) compounds. The study revealed that the synthesized Ru(III) complexes of the tetradentate Schiff base exhibited strong scavenging activities against DPPH and moderate against ABTS radicals. In addition, the antiproliferative studies of the complexes were also tested against human renal cancer cells (TK10), human melanoma cancer cells (UACC62), and human breast cancer cells (MCF7) using the SRB assay. The results indicated that the Ru(III) complexes showed low anticancer activities against the tested human cancer cell lines.

Keywords:

• Ru(III) complexes
• Tetradentate Schiff base
• Spectral studies
• Antioxidant
• Anticancer

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was financially supported by the Govan Mbeki Research and Development (GMRD), University of Fort Hare.