Essential transition metal complexes containing ligands with two or more scaffolds displaying antitumor activity

Schiff base metal complexes have been extensively studied due to their diverse applications, especially in biological and medicinal fields. These compounds have attracted considerable attention because of their broad therapeutic potential, particularly their antitumor properties. Among metallodrugs, copper complexes stand out due to the essential role of copper in biological systems, where it participates in the active sites of several enzymes involved in oxidation, reduction, electron transfer, and antioxidant processes. The structural flexibility of copper enables the formation of stable complexes with different ligands and biomolecules, mainly exhibiting tetragonal geometry for Cu(II) and tetrahedral geometry for Cu(I). This research aims to design and synthesize nitrogen-containing ligands derived from oxindoles or hydantoin and their corresponding copper complexes to develop potential antitumor agents. The compounds were characterized by elemental analysis, IR, UV/Vis, and ICP OES spectroscopy. Cellular activity evaluations demonstrated promising results for the synthesized compounds and their respective ligands.