Halogenated non-innocent vanadium(v) Schiff base complexes: chemical and anti-proliferative properties

Abstract

A series of non-innocent halogen substituted Schiff base vanadium catecholates were added with different electron donating and withdrawing substituents on the catecholates to investigate the electronic effects on the properties of this class of compounds. We hypothesized that the electronic changes would be reflected in their redox properties and stabilities, which should lead to differences in their biological properties. Using UV-spectroscopy, we measured their hydrolytic stability, and using electrochemistry, we characterized their redox properties. Adding one substituent on the catecholate group on the complexes changed the redox potentials of the complexes; however, less impact on the hydrolytic stability was observed. We discovered that hydrolytic stability was crucial to the anti-proliferative effects on glioblastoma cells, and most of these compounds had effects similar to vanadates regardless of their different redox properties. Hence, we could not determine the importance of changing the electronic properties and redox potential on the anti-proliferative effects of mono-substituted catecholates. However, the studies did show that the pK_a of the substituted catecholate showed a linear correlation with the redox potential of the non-innocent Schiff base vanadium complexes, which will be important in future investigations into this class of complexes.