Theoretical and Experimental in vitro Antifungal and Antitumor Activities of Organotin(IV) Derivatives of 3-(4-nitrophenyl)-2-methylacrylic acid

Di- and triorganotin(IV) derivatives of 3-(4-nitrophenyl)-2-methylacrylic acid (HL), i.e., [n-Bu2SnL2] (1), [Me2SnL2] (2), [n-Bu3SnL]n (3) [Me3SnL]n (4) and [Ph3SnL]n (5) were synthesized and characterized by the elemental analysis, FT-IR and multinuclear (1H and 13C) NMR. The IR analysis showed a chelating/bridging bidentate coordination of the ligand in diorganotin(IV)/triorganotin(IV) derivatives resulting in the formation of 6/5 coordinated tin centers, respectively, in the solid state. The NMR study indicated a decrease in the coordination number of tin in the complexes in solution form. The triorganotin(IV) complexes (3, 5) showed promising in vitro antifungal and antitumor properties comparable to standard drugs used and were found more cytotoxic than the diorganotin(IV) derivatives (1, 2). Molecular docking studies carried out on tubulin as receptor showed a similar mode of antitumor action for complex 5 and standard drug vincristine. The docking analysis for antifungal activity of complex 3 as model compound showed hydrogen bonding, polar and hydrophobic interactions with the target proteins of the fungal strains.