A detailed in vitro study of naproxen metal complexes in quest of new therapeutic possibilities

Abstract

Objective: The present study was designed to investigate the in vitro anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, cytotoxic and antioxidant effects of Naproxen metal complexes.

Methodology: The anti-inflammatory activity was evaluated by HRBC membrane stabilization method while antimicrobial activity by disk diffusion method. The cytotoxicity was evaluated by brine shrimp lethality bioassay and compared with vincristine sulfate. Antioxidant potential was evaluated in terms of DPPH radical scavenging potential, ABTS scavenging potential, reducing power assay, superoxide dismutase assay and total antioxidant capacity by specific standard procedures.

Results: The Naproxen metal chelates showed significant anti-inflammatory effects in dose dependent manner. Naproxen standard showed maximum inhibition occurred 73.21% at the dose of 2000 lg/ml. Among Naproxen metal chelates, Naproxen silver complex showed potent antimicrobial activity against most of the tested microorganisms while Naproxen zinc complex showed better activity against gram positive strains than gram negative. In brine shrimp lethality bioassay, varying degree of lethality to Naproxen metal chelates was observed showing Naproxen iron complex surprisingly very potent cytotoxic activity compared to vincristine sulfate where other metal complexes displayed reduced cytotoxicity than parent Naproxen while Naproxen exhibited the lowest antioxidant assay among all the metal complexes compared to the standard ascorbic acid.

Conclusion: The present study demonstrated that Naproxen and its complexes possess in vitro anti-inflammatory activity while silver, zinc and iron complexes possess higher antimicrobial and cytotoxic properties than the parent ligand and possess very mild antioxidant activity.

Keywords: Naproxen; Anti-inflammatory; Antimicrobial; Cytotoxic; Antioxidant activity