Development of New Potential Anticancer Metal Complexes Derived from 2-Hydrazinobenzothiazole

Background: Due to the side effects of clinically approved anticancer drugs there is a great need to explore and develop new metal-based anticancer drug molecules of high efficiency with less or no side effects. Objective: To synthesize new metal complexes of 2-hydrazinobenzothiazole (hbt) and to investigate their potential anticancer characteristics. Methods: New five complexes; [VO(hbt)2SO4].4H2O (1), [Ru(hbt)2Cl3(H2O)] (2), [M(hbt)2Cl2] [M(II) = Pd (3), Pt (4)] and [Ag(hbt)2].NO3 (5) were prepared and their structure was investigated by means of FTIR, 1H NMR, ESI-MS and UV-Vis spectra, elemental and thermal analysis, magnetic and molar conductance measurements. The ligand and its complexes were examined as anticancer agents against Ehrlich ascites carcinoma (EAC) and human cancer cells (hepatocellular carcinoma Hep-G2, mammary gland breast cancer MCF-7 and colorectal carcinoma HCT-116). This feature is further supported by the DNAmetal complexes binding ability. In addition, anti-oxidation activity of the complexes was investigated. Results: Complex (5) shows the highest anticancer activity with IC50 of 5.15, 9.9, 13.1 and 17.7 μg/mL for EAC, HePG-2, MCF-7 and HCT-116, respectively. Complexes (2) and (3) show promising cytotoxicity against EAC and HePG-2 cells with IC50 5.49 and 16.2 μg/mL, respectively. While, complexes (1) and (4) show optimistic cytotoxicity against EAC with IC50 of 9.63 and 11.25 μg/mL, respectively. The order of DNA binding ability of the complexes is (5) > (3) > (2) > (1) > (4). Among the five complexes, complex (5) shows the best anti-oxidation activity. Conclusion: Complex (5) showed the highest DNA binding ability, anti-oxidation and anticancer activities.