Investigation of biological activities of the novel acyl-hydrazone schiff base and their transition metal complexes by using in vitro tests

Schiff bases, had been synthesized for the first-time by the chemist Hugo Schiff, are the compounds that resulting from the condensation of carbonyl compounds and primary amines. Studies to date have shown that transition metal complexes of schiff bases exhibit various biological activities such as plant growth inhibitor, insecticidal, anti-bacterial, antimicrobial, antiviral, antituberculosis, antidepressant and anticonvulsant (anti-epileptic). The hydrazon derivatives are antagonistic molecules, which enhance the biological activity of schiff bases. Due to their biological activities, the complexes that are formed with transiton metals and schiff bases are so important in order to development new anti-cancer agents. In the thesis; cytotoxic activities of new synthesized schiff bases and complexes of schiff bases formed by transition metals on breast cancer and healthy cell lines were determined by using Alamar Blue cell viability, LDH cellular membrane integrity and PicoGreen dsDNA quantitation assays. Furthermore, the activities on reactive oxygen species accumulation and caspase-3 activities were also measured. Cis-platinum is used as a positive control. As a result of the achieved experiments on different cell lines, it was observed that new synthesized schiff base complexes displayed more influence on cancer cells and less toxicity on the healthy cell line, in a comparison with cis-platinum. It was also determined that the transition metals increase the anti-cancer activities of schiff bases containing acyl-hydrazone derivatives. Therefore; schiff base complexes containing transition metals are thought that some promising anti-cancer agent candidates in cancer therapies.