Evaluation of Anticancer Activity of Schiff bases Derived from Pyridine and their Metal Complexes (A Review)

Cancer is a deadly disease; many treatment strategies are available to cure/treat cancer. After the metal-based anticancer drug (Cisplatin), metal complexes play a vital role in pharmaceutical science. We aimed to analyze the anticancer activity of pyridine Schiff base complexes. This review article searched the anticancer studies of pyridine Schiff base metal complexes from 2015 to 2021. Information was gathered from the selected studies to analyze and highlight the importance of anticancer agents. A total of sixty six full-length articles were collected and evaluated. On the critical assessment, we found that compared to Schiff base ligand, the metal complexes exhibited excellent activity towards various cancer cell lines (including MCF-7, HeLa, HCT-116, Hepa-2). We identified more complexes that exhibited promising activity against various cell lines and revealed IC50 values equal to or even lower than the reference drug used.