Three mononuclear Cu (II) complexes based on p-tolylmethanamine Schiff bases: In-vitro cytotoxicity, DNA binding ability, nuclease activity and antibacterial studies

Abstract Herein, we have reported three novel mononuclear copper (II) complexes 1 [Cu(L 1 ) 2 ], 2 [Cu(L 2 ) 2 ] and 3 [Cu(L 3 ) 2 ] where, L 1 H = (2-(4-methylbenzylimino)methyl)-4-nitrophenol, C 15 H 14 N 2 O 3 )), L 2 H = (2-(4-methylbenzylimino)methyl)-4-chlorophenol, C 15 H 14 ClNO)) and L 3 H = (2-(4-methylbenzylimino)methyl)-4,6-dichlorophenol, C 15 H 13 Cl 2 NO)) have been characterized by several physicochemical techniques. Having a base of spectroscopic and analytical data, complexes 1 , 2 and 3 exhibited square planar geometry where Schiff bases act as bi-dentate NO donar ligands. DNA biding and nuclease activity studies against CT-DNA and supercoiled pBR322-DNA respectively revealed an intercalative mode of binding and also cleave efficient manner. Moreover, synthesized compounds were investigated for their in - vitro cytotoxic potential against human breast cancer cell (MCF-7) and oral cancer cell (KB3) using cis-platin as standard drug under MTT assay, results revealed that the biological potency of synthesized compounds as well as antibacterial activity.