Synthesis, crystal structure and anticancer activities of an unusual inorganic–organic hybrid complex with a sandwiched ribbon structure

Abstract

An inorganic-organic hybrid complex [Cd7Cl14L2(EtOH)2]n (L = 4-Aminoantipyrine) was synthesised by solvothermal reaction and characterised by X-ray single-crystal diffraction analyses. It has unusual seven-nuclear cadmium chloride structure, which extends along the a-axis to form an infinite flat ribbon structure with the thickness of 3 Å and the width of 18 Å. The flat inorganic ribbon is wrapped in the two edge sides by organic molecules to form a sandwich structure. The MTT assay result displayed that the synthesised complex possessed antiproliferative activity potentials against the HCT-116, HepG2 and MCF-7 cancer cell lines. After 72 h treatment, the complex had a potent inhibitory effect on HCT-116 cells, and the IC50 value was 1.05 ± 0.06 (μg/mL). The cell cycle and apoptosis experiments showed that the complex remarkably induced apoptosis and arrested the HCT-116 cancer cell lines in the G1/G0 phase related to the concentration.