Sudabeh Shokrollahi - Department of Chemistry, College of Science, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran
Ahmad Amiri - Department of Chemistry, College of Science, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

Drug–albumin complexes can be regarded as fundamental model for the drug–protein-binding, owing to thestability, availability, and extraordinary binding capacity of albumin. In summary, the investigation of theinteractions between anticancer agents and HSA is bound to be revealing [۱,۲]. Herein, four Schiff-baseshave been synthesised by the reaction of ۱,۵-Naphthalenediamine (p-ND) with the four aldehyde drivativesand characterised by UV–Vis, FT-IR, ۱H-NMR, and mass spectroscopy. Quantum chemical calculations ofsynthesized compounds have been carried out by DFT at the B۳LYP/۶–۳۱۱++G(d,p) level; these show theresults of the calculations to be in accordance with the experimental ones. A comparative analysis of theexperimental and calculated vibrational frequencies was performed and significant bands were specified.The binding affinity between our Schiff-bases and human serum albumin (HSA) was studied under simulatedphysiological conditions, using absorbance titration experiments, fluorescence spectroscopy, circulardichroism (CD), and molecular docking (MD). Interaction results revealed one molecule of synthesisedSchiff-bases to bind to protein. In-vitro anticancer activity of the synthesised compounds was evaluatedagainst the human hepatocellular carcinoma (HepG۲) and human breast (MCF-۷) cancer cells using MTTassay. Among the compounds, L۳ (containing a metoxy substituents) exhibited the highest anticanceractivity.

Schiff Base; HSA Binding; Molecular Docking; DFT; Circular Dichroism; MTT assay