The Cytotoxic Activity of the New Unsymmetrical and Symmetrical “End-Off ” Copper Complexes in A549 Cell Line

We synthesized four copper complexes of Schiff Base. Compounds 1 and 2 are unsymmetrical binuclear complexes while compounds 3 and 4 are symmetrical binuclear complexes. The structure of the compounds was determined and the in vitro cytotoxic activity of the complexes was assessed on A549 lung carcinoma cell line. The metal complexes were dissolved in water (compound 2 and 4) or DMSO (compound 1 and 3). Various concentrations (1000, 500, 250, 100, 50, 25, 10, 5 and 2.5 μM) of each compound were prepared for exposure to A549 cell line. MTT Cell viability assay was performed to assess the cytotoxicity of the compounds. Out of the four copper complexes synthesized in this study, compound 4 exhibited notable cytotoxic effects in human lung (A549) cancer cell lines after 24-h treatment. Further investigations on the precise mechanism of action are underway to achieve a better understanding over the cytotoxicity mechanism.