Four acylhydrazone based complexes: Inhibition of proliferation, inducing apoptosis and inhibiting cell migration

Abstract

Four acylhydrazone based complexes [TbL(CH3OH)(H2O) (NO3)2]·0.32H2O (1), [ML(NO3)]n M = Pb for (2), M = Zn for (3) and [Ni(HL)(H2L)]·(NO3)3 (4) (HL = N'-(pyridin-2-ylmethylene)isonicotinohydrazide) with low dimensional structures were synthesized. Crystallographic study reveals complexes 2 and 3 have a chain structure, while complexes 1 and 4 are both zero-dimensional monomers. The anti-proliferative activity showed that complex 1 had the best activity against SMMC-7721 cells, while 2 showed the strongest effect against MDA-MB-231 and A549 cells. The increase in intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) production and the change in cell nuclear morphology of MDA-MB-231 after treatment with 2 indicate that the cell death mechanism is the induction of apoptosis generation. Cell cycle assay with MDA-MB-231 cell showed that complex 2 was able to block the cell cycle at the G0/G1 phase. In addition, the results of wound-healing and transwell assays revealed that 1 and 2 were both able to exhibit inhibition of the cell invasion and metastasis at very low doses.