Investigation of biological activities of 2-{(E)-[(pyridin-3-yl)imino]methyl}phenol Schiff Base

Schiff bases are the most widely used compounds in pharmaceutical chemistry as therapeutic agents. DNA is the main target of drugs in various diseases, especially cancer, allowing the research of new molecules that interact with DNA. In our study, it was targeted to determine the potential of newly synthesized 2-{(E)-[(pyridin-3-yl)imino]methyl}phenol Schiff base as an antimicrobial, antimutagenic and anticancer agent by in vitro methods. Therefore, in our study, the antimicrobial activity of Schiff base was tested against bacteria and yeasts with a minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) method. The antimutagenic effect of Schiff base was determined by the Ames/Salmonella test. The interaction with DNA was investigated in vitro by UV titration method and agarose gel electrophoresis method. In our study, it showed antimicrobial activity at concentrations of 32-128 µg/mL against bacteria and 32-64 µg/mL against yeasts. It was determined that Schiff base showed an antimutagenic effect depending on increasing concentration, and as a result, it prevented both base pair exchange and frameshift mutation (p<0.05). In vitro results showed that the Schiff base intercalates and electrostatically binds to CT-DNA (Calf thymus DNA) and cleaves pBR322 plasmid DNA both hydrolytically and oxidatively. As a result, it can be suggested that 2-{(E)-[(pyridin-3-yl)imino]methyl}phenol interacts with DNA according to in vitro findings and can be used as an antimicrobial and anticancer agent.