Screening of biological properties of MoOS- and MoO-based coordination complexes: Investigation of antibacterial, antifungal, antioxidative and antitumoral activities versus growing of Spirulina platensis biomass.

This paper deals with the biological potential of coordination compounds based on binuclear core [MoOE] (E = O or S) coordinated with commercially available ligands such as oxalates (Ox), L-cysteine (L-cys), L-histidine (L-his), Iminodiacetate (IDA), Nitrilotriacetate (HNTA or NTA) or ethylenediamine tetraacetate (EDTA) by means of various in vitro assays in a screening approach. Results suggest that the obtained complexes show weak antibacterial and antifungal properties while not being cytotoxic on cancerous and mammalian cells. In contrast, [MoOE(L-cys)] complexes stand out as powerful antioxidant, whereas [MoOE(EDTA)] associating tetraphenylphosphonium counter-cations display strong antibiotic activity. Finally, some complexes have evidenced a positive activity towards the growing of spirulina platensis together with a modification of the proportions of biological components inside the cells. These findings reveal promising bioactivity of the bridged binuclear Mo cores inside complexes and encourage further research for new highly active yet non-toxic molecules for biological and biomedical applications.