Design of New Schiff-Base Copper(II) Complexes: Synthesis, Crystal Structures, DFT Study, and Binding Potency toward Cytochrome P450 3A4

Abstract

We report the synthesis and crystal structures of three new copper(II) Schiff-base complexes. The complexes have been characterized by elemental analysis and Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) and UV–visible spectroscopies. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis reveals that complexes 1 and 3 crystallize in a monoclinic space group C2/c and 2 in a triclinic space group P1̅, each adopting a square planar geometry around the metal center. We use a density functional theory method to explore the quantum chemical properties of these complexes. The calculation proceeds with the three-dimensional (3D) crystal structure characterization of the complexes in which the calculated IR and UV–vis values are comparable to the experimental results. Charge distribution and molecular orbital analyses enabled quantum chemical property prediction of these complexes. We study the drug-likeness properties and binding potentials of the synthesized complexes. The in silico outcome showed that they could serve as permeability-glycoprotein (P-gp) and different cytochrome P450 substrates. Our calculations showed that the complexes significantly bind to cytochrome P450 3A4.