Metal complexes of tosyl sulfonamides: design, X-ray structure, biological activities and molecular docking studies

The present study reports the synthesis of Zn(II) complexes of tosyl sulfonamide derivatives obtained by the reaction of tosyl chloride with L-amino acids. The ligands and their complexes were characterized by IR, 1H and 13C-NMR, GC-MS, elemental analysis and X-ray crystallography in the case of NA3. All compounds were screened for their carbonic anhydrase inhibitory activities. Results demonstrated that complexes are stronger inhibitors of carbonic anhydrase compared to their parent ligands, which warrants further development of organometallics as active carbonic anhydrase inhibitors. Cytotoxicity assays on lung carcinoma (H-157) and kidney fibroblast (BHK-21) cancer cells demonstrated that compounds were potent anticancer agents. Additionally, the complexes were screened against promastigote forms of Leishmania major and found to be significant antileishmanial agents. Molecular docking studies were performed against bCA II enzymes to rationalize the inhibitory properties of these compounds. The identified inhibitors showed promise for the design of interesting pharmacological agents.