New triazole-based coordination complexes as antitumor agents against triple negative breast cancer MDA-MB-468 cell line

Abstract

The present work describes the synthesis of a new triazole based ligand 3-(3,5-dimethyl-1H-pyrazol-1-yl)-1-methyl-1H-1,2,4-triazole (LM) and demonstration of its coordination diversity giving rise to a family of seven new coordination complexes, namely: [Ni(LM)₃](ClO₄)₂·C₂H₆OS (5), [Co₂(LM)₆](ClO₄)₄·(C₂H₅)O (6), [Cd(LM)₂Cl₂] (7), [Cu(LM)₂NO₃]NO₃ (8), [Fe(LM)₃](BF₄)₂ (9), [Zn(LM)₃](BF₄)₂ (10) and [Zn(LM)₂NO₃]NO₃ (11), whose crystal structure was determined by single-crystal X-ray diffraction. Cytotoxic activity was evaluated against the MDA-MB-468 cancer cell line, which serves as a model for triple-negative breast cancer, and compared to the precursor molecule (L), as well as their coordination complexes (H₃O){[NiL₃](ClO₄)₃} (1), [CoL₃](ClO₄)₂·2H₂O (2), [CdL₂Cl₂] (3) and [CuL₃](NO₃)₂ (4), for which the crystal structure was earlier determined. Notably, cadmium complexes 3 and 7 exhibit remarkable cytotoxicity and demonstrated a high selectivity index towards cancer cells when compared to peripheral blood mononuclear cells. Such activity highlights their potential function as anticancer agents.