From design to functionality of ionic-liquid-related salts: DNA titration, antioxidants, and anticancer activities

To develop effective functional ionic-liquid-related salts (ILRSs) as future anticancer drugs.

Twelve imidazole-based ionic-liquid-related salts were synthesized and characterized by spectroscopic methods. These ILRSs were used to study the antioxidant and anticancer activities, DNA titration, modeling, and in-silico studies.

Among 12 ILRSs, ILRSs 5 and 4 indicated superior activities, showing higher scavenging percentages (70.7% and 65.5%) and lower IC₅₀ values than the standard ascorbic acid. ILRSs 5 and 4 showed the most effective activities with MCF-7 cells, with viability values of 52.17% and 53.67% at 10 µM and IC₅₀ values of 10.87 and 11.03 µM, respectively. DNA-binding studies showed moderate to strong interactions with Ct-DNA (binding constants: 10⁴ to 10⁵ M^-1). The modeling studies of compounds A and B with DNA confirmed one hydrogen bond with -8.7 and -8.2 kcal/mol binding affinities.

The reported ILRSs 5 and 4 showed good antioxidant and anticancer activities and may be used as future anticancer drugs.