Synthesis, Characterization, Pharmacological and toxicological Perspectives of Metal Complexes of Various Drugs

Abstract

Generally speaking, many drugs acquire modified toxicological and pharmacological properties when they are in the form of metal complexes. The metals and their compounds have been used for medical applications throughout history. It was not until the 20th century the metal complexes began to be screened systematically for medicinal properties and the concept gained huge enhancement after the approval of Cisplatin, platinum containing anticancer drug. Working on metal complexes of already approved drugs can substantially reduce the time and money spent in clinical development. Seven Series of Copper, Zinc, Iron, Antimony, tri- and diorganotin (IV) metal complexes were synthesized by using stoichiometric amounts of various drugs. Drugs were selected from various categories in order to study their effect on the biological assay. Drugs used were Nimesulide, Ribavirin, Piracetam, Tizanidine, Cimetidine, Gliclazide, Acyclovir and Ceftriaxone. Taking in account the most commonly used NSAIDs, antibiotics and antivirals groups but the selection made was, due to the availability of the drugs and their structure’s that allowed metal coordination. FT-IR, 1H and 13C NMR analysis were used for the structural assignment of the synthesized complexes. The results obtained from different analytical techniques confirmed the formation of the metal complexes. The purity of the synthesized complexes was justified by elemental analysis. All the synthesized complexes were screened for antibacterial and antifungal analysis, against medically important bacteria and fungi. Overall some of the synthesized metal complexes showed higher activity than the standard. The Toxicological activities of the synthesized complexes were studied through MTT and FRET Melting assay. In general, the copper and zinc complexes showed remarkable activity compared to organotin, iron and antimony complexes. The results of the activities of the synthesized complexes suggested that these synthesized metal complexes may be used in chemotherapy as well as bactericidal and fungicidal agents in future.