Novel copper complexes of metronidazole and metronidazole benzoate: synthesis, characterization, biological and computational studies

Synthesis and characterization of novel copper complexes of metronidazole benzoate (MTZ Benz), metronidazole (MTZ) in the presence of another ligand; dichloroacetic acid (DCA) were compared and reported in the present work. Different bacterial and fungus strains were ascertained to evaluate the biological potency of the synthesized complexes, that is, Escherichia coli, Bordetella bronceptica, Staphylococcus epidermidis, Baccilus pumilus, Staphylococcus aureus and yeast strain Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Agar diffusion method was employed to investigate in vitro antibacterial activities of the synthesized metal complexes and the tested parent ligands. alpha-Amylase and alpha-glucosidase inhibition studies of the synthesized complexes were also carried out. The antibacterial potential and alpha-amylase and alpha-glucosidase inhibition studies of complexes were further investigated by molecular docking studies, which supported the experimental results. Significant alpha-amylase and alpha-glucosidase inhibition activities were shown by the synthesized complexes. S-1 and S-5 were found to be most inhibitors of alpha-amylase and alpha-glucosidase having IC50 42.50, 44.80 and 4.52 mu g/mL, 4.80 mu g/mL, respectively. The newly synthesized copper complexes showed overall better biological activities compared to each parent ligands used.