Synthesis, spectral, thermal, and biological characterization of Se(IV) nanocomplexes derived from vitamin E and amino acid mixed ligands as a metal-drug model

Researchers have been interested in inorganic pharmaceutical chemistry in recent years. They have prepared antioxidants and anticancer compounds to lower the cost of manufacturing platinum and palladium medications and as alternatives to some known side-effect drugs. The current work focused on selenium complexes with mixed ligands, which included histidine, tryptophan, and tyrosine as the second ligand and one of the interesting vitamins, like vitamin E, as the first ligand. The synthesis was done in a molar ratio of (1:2:1) (selenium: vitamin E: amino acid). Different characterization techniques were used to check and discuss the chemical structures and morphological properties of the synthesized complexes, including elemental analysis, conductance, FTIR, XRD, UV-Vis, TG/DTG, ¹HNMR, SEM-EDX, and TEM investigations. Vitamin E was chelated as a monodentate ligand through the oxygen atom of the OH group. On the other hand, all amino acids were coordinated as bidentate secondary ligands through the nitrogen of the amino group and the oxygen of the carboxylic group. The complexes have strong scavenging properties and antioxidant activity. Their nanoscale synthesis significantly boosts human cells' uptake of selenium, resulting in the most effective medicinal product. The anticancer potential of each complex examined in this study was assessed against the HepG2 and A2780 cell lines. Based on these facts, the complex Se/Vit E/Tyr can be employed as an anticancer agent.