Synthesis, characterization, anti-tumor activity, photo-luminescence and BHb/HHb/Hsp90 molecular docking of zinc(II) hydroxyl-terpyridine complexes.

Six zinc(II) complexes [Zn(Br)L] (1), [Zn(Br)L] (2) and [Zn(Br)L] (3), [Zn(I)L] (4), [Zn(I)L] (5) and [Zn(I)L] (6) have been obtained by the reactions of ZnBr or ZnI with p-hydroxyl-4'-phenyl-terpyridine(L), m-hydroxyl-4'-phenyl-terpyridine(L) and o-hydroxyl-4'-phenyl-terpyridine(L), which were characterized by elemental analysis, FT-IR and NMR, as well as single crystal X-ray diffraction. Comparing to cisplatin, compounds 1-6 show higher antiproliferative activity against human lung carcinoma cell line (A549), human ileocecal colorectal adenocarcinoma cell line (HCT-8) and human breast cancer cell line (MCF-7). As the concentration of compounds 1-6 increases in the BHb/HHb-compound system, the fluorescent intensity of bovine hemoglobin (BHb) and human hemoglobin (HHb) reduces with a static quenching mechanism.