ONS donor entwined iron(iii) and cobalt(iii) complexes with exemplary safety profile as potent anticancer and glucose uptake agents

Abstract

The global increasing burden of non-communicable diseases such as cancer and diabetes has generated an immediate need for the development of sustainable drugs. Transition metal complexes with their versatility can offer excellent drug candidature potency. With very few reports on the non-toxic and safe drug candidatures of transition metal complexes, we have hereby attempted to explore the bioactivity of newly synthesized Fe³⁺ and Co³⁺ complexes tethered with an ONS donor ligand core. The new compounds, [Fe^III(OH₂)(OMe)(Hhpdbal-sbdt)₂] (1) and [Co^III(OH₂)(Cl)(Hhpdbal-sbdt)₂] (2) were characterized using the usual analytical and spectroscopic techniques. The human cervical cancer cell line (HeLa) was used as the model cancer cell line against which the anticancer activities of compounds were evaluated. Both compounds 1 and 2 exhibited significant antineoplastic behavior with IC₅₀ values of 4.61 μM and 4.70 μM, respectively. Human liver carcinoma cells (HePG2) were used as model diabetic or insulin resistant cells to study the glucose uptake activity of the compounds. The cobalt complex 2 demonstrated excellent glucose uptake (89.83%). To rationalize and compliment the biological significance of these compounds, the cytotoxicity or the safety profile was addressed against the healthy human kidney cell line (HEK-293), and from this study, the CC₅₀ values of complexes 1 and 2 were calculated to be 412.68 μM and 473.17 μM, respectively, which reflected the non-toxic nature of the candidates. Furthermore, the BSA protein interactions of 1 and 2 were preliminarily interpreted by studying binding thermodynamics, quenching and binding interactions, which suggested facile binding between compounds and BSA.