Abstract. The reaction of divalent transition metal salts and (E)-N'-(1-(pyridin-2-yl)ethylidene)nicotinohydrazide (penh) led to the formation of [Mn(penh) 2 ] (complex 1), [Co(penh) 2 ] (complex 2), [Cu(penh) 2 ] (complex 3) and [Cd (penh) 2 ] (complex 4) complexes. The four complexes were characterized using elemental analyses, infrared spectra and single-crystal X-ray diffraction analyses. Subsequently, the complexes were used for in vitro cell level experiments to determine potential antitumor effects. The results demonstrated that the complexes exhibited a similar structure; however, they were crystallized with distinct space groups. In comparison with the uncomplexed penh ligand, all four complexes were able to markedly decrease the proliferation rate of various types of tumor cell, including the human lung cancer cell line A549, human gastric cancer cell line BGC823 and human esophageal cancer cell line Eca109, in a concentration-dependent manner. Furthermore, the complexes promoted tumor cell apoptosis, as demonstrated in the apoptosis assay, and this was confirmed using electrophoresis.
IntroductionHydrazide-hydrazone derivatives are an important class of biologically active molecules, which have attracted the attention of medicinal chemists due to their wide-ranging pharmacological properties and their potential application as antitumor, antineoplastic, antiviral and anti-inflammatory agents (1-6).In particular, aroylhydrazone complexes of transition metals are known to provide useful models for the elucidation of the underlying molecular mechanism of enzyme inhibition by hydrazine derivatives (7) and for their potential pharmacological application (8,9). Hydrazone derivatives of isoniazid and other hydrazides have been reported to exhibit marked antimicrobial activity (10-14). Furthermore, a number of substituted hydrazone derivatives have been synthesized and evaluated for their antitumor activity, with certain promising results having been reported (15-17).The aim of the present study was to develop potent anticancer agents. (E)-N'-(1-(pyridin-2-yl)ethylidene) nicotinohydrazide (penh), and [Mn(penh) 2 ] (complex 1), [Co (penh) 2 ] (complex 2), [Cu(penh) 2 ] (complex 3) and [Cd(penh) 2 ] (complex 4) metal complexes were synthesized, and their cytotoxicity against human lung cancer (A549), human gastric cancer (BGC823) and human esophageal cancer (Eca109) cell lines was investigated.
Materials and methodsMaterials. All starting materials were obtained commercially and used as received. The A549 human lung cancer, BGC823 human gastric cancer and Eca109 human esophageal cancer cell lines were obtained from the Cell Culture Center of the Basic Institute of Medical Sciences (Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, China). Cell culture reagents were purchased from Gibco (Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc., Waltham, MA, USA). An Annexin V/propidium iodide (PI) double staining kit was purchased from BD Biosciences (Franklin Lakes, NJ, USA). MTT and dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) were purchased from Sigma-Aldrich (Merc...