A systematic investigation on biological activities of a novel double zwitterionic Schiff base Cu(II) complex.

Double zwitterionic amino acid Schiff base, o-vanillylidene-L-histidine (OVHIS) and its copper complex (CuOVHIS) have been synthesized and characterized. CuOVHIS has distorted octahedral geometry, and OVHIS coordinates the copper ion in a tetradentate manner (N2O2). The pKa of OVHIS in aqueous solution was studied by potentiometric and spectrophotometric methods. DNA binding behavior of the compounds was investigated using spectrophotometric, cyclic voltammetric, and viscosity methods. The efficacy of DNA cleaving nature was tested on pUC19 DNA. The in vitro biological activity was tested against various micro organisms. The effect of CuOVHIS on the surface feature of Escherichia coli was analyzed by SEM. DPPH assay studies revealed that CuOVHIS has higher antioxidant activity. OVHIS inhibits proliferation of HCT117 cells with half maximal inhibition (IC50) of 71.15±0.67. Chelation of OVHIS with Cu(II) ion enhances the inhibition of proliferation action (IC50=53.14±0.67).