Newly synthesized lanthanides complexes of ferrocene-based Schiff base with high biological activities and improved molecular docking data

Amino acids are the fundamental building blocks of proteins and are involved in all major biological ac-tivities. Schiff bases being active biological moieties and possessing diverse pharmacological activities. Herein, the previously synthesized Schiff base ligand (HL) underwent metal complex formation, to get their La(III), Er(III) and Yb(III) metal complexes. These metal complexes were characterized using different spectroscopic tools as elemental analysis, FT-IR, mass, UV-Vis spectra, thermal analysis (TG) and scanning electron microscope (SEM). According to the elemental analysis data, the complexes were found to have octahedral geometry with the formula [M(L)(H2O)2Cl]Cl.nH2O (M = La(III), n = 2; Er(III), n = 4 and Yb(III), n = 1). The ligand binds to the metal ions with mononegative tridentate mode through the carboxylic oxygen, imidazole nitrogen and azomethine nitrogen as deduced from the IR spectra. The complexes de-composed within two or three steps from room temperature to 10 0 0 & DEG;C as elucidated from TG. Also, biological and anticancer activities were tested and promising activities. Molecular docking was studied on two different proteins, the receptor of breast cancer mutant oxidoreductase (3HB5) and the receptor of colon cancer isomerase (2HQ6). The results recommended that Yb(III) complex can be used as breast and colon cancer drugs.(c) 2022 Published by Elsevier B.V.

Automated summary

A series of metal complexes with Schiff base ligands were synthesized and characterized using spectroscopic methods and thermal analysis. The results showed that these metal complexes exhibited promising biological and anticancer activities, with Yb(III) complex showing potential as a breast and colon cancer drug based on molecular docking studies.