Efficient synthesis and evaluation of bis-pyridinium/bis-quinolinium metallosalophens as antibiotic and antitumor candidates

Inspired with the pharmacological diversity of salophens and in our endeavor to explore a new strategy which may conflict the invasion of drug resistance, we report herein efficient synthetic routes for the synthesis of new RO-salophen(Cl), pyridinium/quinolinium-based salophens (3a-e) and metallosalophens (4a-j). These new architectures have been structurally characterized by elemental and spectral analysis as well pharmacologically evaluated for their in vitro antimicrobial, against a common panel of pathogenic bacterial and fungal strains, and anticancer activities against human colon carcinoma (HCT-116) cell lines. Antimicrobial assay results revealed that all tested compounds exhibited moderate to superb broad-spectrum efficacy in comparison to the standard antibiotic with a preferential ability to perform as a fungicides than to act as bactericides. Noteworthy, VO(II)-salophens are more effective in reduction HCT-116 cell viability than Cu(II)-salophens. For example, VO(II)-salophen3 (4f) (IC50 = 2.13 μg/mL) was ca. 10-fold more efficient than Cu(II)-salophen3 (4e) (IC50 = 20.30 μg/mL).