Synthesis, Characterization and Biological Evaluation of Metal Complexes with Water-Soluble Macromolecular Dendritic Ligand

Abstract

The development of drug resistant strains of pathogenic fungi despite the availability of a large number of drugs demands for the development of new, more potential drug molecules. Dendrimer-based drug molecules have been comparatively less studied upon recent advancement in this field. In the present work, a new water-soluble dendritic ligand and its copper(II), nickel(II), and cobalt(II) complexes have been synthesized. The ligand, as well as its complexes, were characterized by various physicochemical, analytical, and spectroscopic techniques. On the basis of UV-Vis spectroscopic data, tetragonal geometry was proposed for Cu(II) complex and square planar geometry was established for Co(II) and Ni(II) complexes. The antifungal activities of water-soluble compounds were evaluated using the disk diffusion method, and the minimal inhibitory concentrations (MICs) against Candida albicans ATCC 90028 were determined by the dilution method. The synthesized compounds proved to be fungicidal in comparison to fluconazole, which is fungistatic only; however, these compounds were less active than fluconazole. Hemolysis assays for one of the reported compound showed that it was nontoxic in comparison to fluconazole. Therefore, the proposed compounds can serve as promising leads for the development of new antifungal agents.