Four transition metal complexes with a semicarbazone ligand bearing pyrazine unit

• Four new complexes based on 3-ethyl-2-acetylpyrazine semicarbazone were synthesized and characterized.
• The effect of the four complexes on human pancreatic cancer, gastric cancer and hepatic cancer cell lines were detected.
• The complexes can inhibit cell proliferation and induce cell apoptosis in human cancer cell lines.

Four new complexes based on L (where L = 3-ethyl-2-acetylpyrazine semicarbazone), namely [CoL2]Cl2·0.5H2O (1), [CoL2](NO3)2 (2), [CdL(H2O)2(NO3)](NO3)·H2O (3) and [CuL(CH3OH)Cl2]·[CuLCl2] (4) have been synthesized and characterized by X-ray diffraction analyses. The results show that the semicarbazone acts as a tridentate neutral ligand in all complexes. Each of complex 1 and 2 reveals a distorted octahedral geometry around the metal ion provided by two units of the ligand, while the ratio of the ligand and metal is 1:1 in complexes 3 and 4. The effect of complexes 1–4 on cell proliferation, apoptosis of human pancreatic cancer (Patu8988), human gastric cancer (SGC7901) and human hepatic cancer (SMMC7721) cell lines have been detected by MTT assay, Annexin V/PI double staining flow cytometry and TUNEL assay. The results show that complexes 1–4 can inhibit cell proliferation of Patu8988, SGC7901 and SMMC7721 cells, significantly higher than the effect of the ligand. However, the complex 4 reveals higher apoptosis rate, and displays up-regulated expression level of caspase 3, detected by western blotting, which also indicates the complex 4 can induce caspase-dependent cell apoptosis in SMMC7721.