Preparation, spectroscopic and anticancer investigations of metal-drug complexes associated between flumequine antibiotic drug with lanthanum(III), samarium(III) and terbium(III) chloride

Flumequine ligand (FLQ) metal complexes of the [M(FLQ)2(Cl)(H2O)].nH2O type, where M are (La(III), Sm(III), and Tb(III)) and FLQ is flumequine have been synthesized. The FLQ metal complexes could be prepared using MCl3 : flumequine in stoichiometry of 1:2 in situ bidentate chelation. The characterization of FLQ complexes obtained have been done using elemental analyses (%C, %H and %N), molar conductivity (Ʌm), infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), electronic spectra (UV-Vis), thermal analysis (TGA), and physicochemical techniques such as X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) measurements at room temperature. Accordingly, these complexes are indicative of an octahedral coordination structure. Flumequine ligand has a bidentate fashion through the oxygen atoms of carbonyl (quinolone) and carboxylic groups. The findings demonstrated the anti-cancer efficacy of these compounds against HepG-2 and MCF-7 cancer cell lines at extremely low doses of up to 58.2 mg/mL. The La(III) complex was shown to have the highest selectivity against cancer cells in comparable with both samarium and terbium(III) complexes. KEY WORDS: Flumequine, Lanthanide metal ions, FTIR, EDX, Complexation, Anticancer activity Bull. Chem. Soc. Ethiop. 2024, 38(3), 671-684.                                                              DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.4314/bcse.v38i3.10