Design and nonlinear optical properties (NLO) using DFT approach of new Cr(III), VO(II), and Ni(II) chelates incorporating tri-dentate imine ligand for DNA interaction, antimicrobial, anticancer activities and molecular docking studies

In recent years, metals based antitumor complexes have played a vital role in chemotherapy. Therefore, in this study, some new imine Cr(III), VO(II) and Ni(II) complexes incorporating ESAP imine ligand (2-Ethoxy-6-((2-hydroxy-phenylimino)-methyl)-phenol were designed and synthesized. The investigated complexes were fully characterized by micro analysis, infrared, electronic spectra, thermal analysis (TGA), conductivity as well as magnetic susceptibility measurements. Moreover, the stability constants of the prepared complexes were determined spectrophotometrically. The results suggest that the titled ESAP imine ligand serves as tri-dentate moiety through deprotonated two phenolic oxygen and azomethene nitrogen atoms for coordination to Cr(III) in octahedral geometry, tetrahedral to Ni(II) and distorted square pyramidal to VO(II). The electronic structure and nonlinear optical parameters NLO of the newly synthesized complexes are investigated theoretically at the B3LYP/GEN level of theory. The studied complexes show promising optical properties. Indeed, the prepared compounds were evaluated for antimicrobial effect against some types of bacteria and fungi. The investigated complexes exhibit a stronger antimicrobial efficiency compared to its ligand. Moreover, the interaction of the complexes with CT-DNA was monitored using spectral studies, viscosity and gel electrophoreses measurements. Furthermore, the cytotoxic activity of the prepared imine complexes on human colon carcinoma cells, hepatic cellular carcinoma cells and breast carcinoma cells have shown promising results and enhancement of the anti-proliferative activity compared to its ligand. The molecular docking into TRK (PDB: 1t46) was done for the optimization of the investigated compounds as potential TRK inhibitors.