Plants provide a wealth of bioactive compounds which aid in exerting a substantial strategy for the treatment of neurological disorders such as Alzheimer's disease and dementia.

Iron overload is a serious clinical condition for humans and is a key target in drug development. The aim of this study was to investigate the coordination of iron(III) ions with curcumin ligand that may be used in the treatment of iron overload. Iron(III) complex of curcumin was synthesized and structurally characterized in its solid and solution state by FT-IR, UV-Vis, elemental analysis, and magnetic susceptibility. Electrochemical behaviour of the ligand and the complexes were examined using cyclic voltammetry. The cytotoxic activities of the ligand and the iron(III) complex were evaluated by the MTT assay. Curcumin reacted with iron in high concentrations at physiological pH at room temperature. Subsequently, a brown-red complex was formed. Data regarding magnetic susceptibility showed that the complexes with a 1:2 (metal/ligand) mole ratio had octahedral geometry. The complex showed higher anti-oxidant effect towards the cell line ECV304 at IC values of 4.83 compared to curcumin. The complex exhibited very high cytotoxic activity and showed a cytotoxic effect that was much better than that of the ligand. The potentials for redox were calculated as 0.180 V and 0.350 V, respectively. The electrochemistry studies showed that Fe /Fe couple redox process occurred at low potentials. This value was within the range of compounds that are expected to show superoxide dismutase activity. This finding indicates that the iron complex is capable of removing free radicals. The observed cytotoxicity could be pursued to obtain a potential drug. Further studies investigating the use of curcumin for this purpose are needed.

The metals are ubiquitous in nature and they have a wide range of uses in industry. They remain in nature for a long time and it is very difficult for mankind to protect himself from metal exposure (Pizent et al., 2012). Aluminium is one of the most common elements in the earth's crust and takes only the value of +3 (Mayyas et al., 2005). It becomes inevitable for people to be exposed to Aluminium because of their presence in dust particles in the air, food additives, phosphate binders, antacids, buffered analgesics, antiperspirants, cooking containers, canned boxes, baby formulations, cosmetics, mining, drinking water and some herbal products

Iron overload is a key target in drug development. This study aimed to investigate the coordination of Fe(III) ions with a curcumin-oxime ligand that may be used in the treatment of iron overload. The synthesis of the curcumin-oxime ligand and curcumin-oxime-Fe(III) complex were successfully made and characterized in its solid-state and solution-state using FT-IR, UV-Vis, elemental analysis, and 1 H-NMR. However, in this study, we investigated the apoptotic effects of the curcumin-oxime Fe (III) complex on SW480. SW480 cells were exposed to 99.2% medium for 48 hours. After 48 hours, the incubation period, cells were harvested by centrifugation and washed in phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) and lysed in radio-immunoprecipitation assay (RIPA) buffer for 20 minutes and supernatants were taken and pellets were discarded. ELISA test was used to examine the expression, and activity of cleaved caspase-3, Bax, and Bcl-2 proteins in SW480 cells. ELISA test results indicated that the activities of apoptotic proteins Bax, caspase 3 and Bcl-2 in human SW480 cell lines significantly increased in 48 hours treatment. Also, the activity of Bcl-2 was observed to decrease significantly. Catalase activities of the complex were investigated. The findings showed that the complex has a catalase activity. The findings suggest that this type of complex may constitute a new and interesting basis for the future search of new and more potent drugs. The SOD activity of the result showed that the complexes possessed a considerable SOD activity with an IC50 value of 7.685 µM. Also, when compared with the control, a complex increased the SOD levels (P < .05). Electrochemistry studies in the literature have shown that the Fe 3+ /Fe 2+ couple redox process occurs in low potential. This value is within the range of compounds that are expected to show superoxide dismutase activity. The I pc /I pa shows that one electron transport takes place in the complex. Our results suggest that curcumin-oxime may represent a new approach in the treatment of iron overload.

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