Ternary oxovanadium(IV) complexes with amino acid-Schiff base and polypyridyl derivatives: synthesis, characterization, and protein tyrosine phosphatase 1B inhibition

To investigate the structure-activity relationship of vanadium complexes in inhibiting protein tyrosine phosphatase1B (PTP1B), eight mixed-ligand oxovanadium(IV) complexes, [V^IVO(SalAla)(NN)] (H₂SalAla for salicylidene alanine, NN for N,N′-donor heterocyclic base, namely, 2,2′-bipyridine (bpy, 1), 1,10-phenanthroline (phen, 2), dipyrido[3,2-d:2′,3′-f]quinoxaline (dpq, 3), dipyrido[3,2-a:2′,3′-c]phenazine (dppz, 4)), [V^IVO(SalLys)(dpq)] (5), [V^IVO(SalLys)(dppz)] (6), [V^IVO(SalAsp)(dppz)], (7) and [V^IVO(SalTrp)(dppz)] (8)), of which 3-8 are new, have been prepared and characterized by elemental analysis, infrared, UV-visible, electrospray ionization mass spectrometry and conductivity. The molar conductance data confirmed the non-electrolytic nature of the complexes in DMSO solution. The coordination in [V^IVO (SalAla)(phen)] (2) was confirmed by X-ray crystal structure analysis. The oxidation state of V(IV) with d¹ configuration in 2 was confirmed by EPR. The speciation of VO-SalAla-phen in aqueous solution was investigated by potentiometric pH titrations. The results indicate that the main species are two ternary complexes at the pH range 7.0-7.4. Biochemical assays demonstrate that the mixed-ligand oxovanadium(IV) complexes are potent inhibitors of PTP1B with IC₅₀ values in the range of 62-597 nM, approximately 3-10 fold weaker in potency than those of similar mixed-ligand oxovanadium(IV) complexes of salicylidene anthranilic acid (SAA) derivative with polypyridyl ligands, except complex 8, which exhibits comparable or better inhibition activity than those of the mixed-ligand oxovanadium(IV) complexes of SAA derivative with polypyridyl ligands. The results demonstrate that the structures of vanadium complexes influence the PTP1B inhibition activity. Kinetics assays reveal that complex 2 inhibits PTP1B in a competitive manner.