A novel water-soluble tetranuclear copper (II) Schiff base cluster bridged by 2, 6-bis-[(2-hydroxyethylimino)methyl]-4-methylphenol in interaction with BSA: Synthesis, X-ray crystallography, docking and cytotoxicity studies

A water-soluble tetranuclear copper (II) Schiff base complex bridged by 2,6-bis-[(2-hydroxyethylimino)methyl]-4-methylphenol, namely [Cu-4(L-1)(2)(O)(OAc)(4)]center dot 2H(2)O was synthesized. The complex was characterized by (HNMR)-H-1, FT-IR, elemental analyses and single-crystal X-ray diffraction. The crystal structure analyses revealed that four Cu atoms were located around a central O atom in a distorted tetrahedral geometry. Beside the two ligands, four acetates also bridged the four Cu atoms. The interaction of the complex with Bovine serum albumin (BSA) was explored by absorption and emission titration methods the calculated binding constants revealed high affinity of the complex to BSA. The antitumor activity of the complex against Jurkat, Raji and A549 cell lines was assessed by the MTT colorimetric method. A strong activity against the cultured tumor cells was observed which makes the complex a possible candidate as an anticancer agent. Further investigation of the BSA-complex interactions was done by docking studies.