A series of oxovanadium complexes with mixed ligands, a tridentate ONO-donor Schiff base ligand [viz., salicylidene anthranilic acid (SAA)], and a bidentate NN ligand [viz., 2,2'-bipyridine (bpy), 1,10-phenanthroline (phen), dipyrido[3,2-d:2',3'-f]quinoxaline (dpq), dipyrido[3,2-a:2',3'-c]phenazine (dppz), or 7-methyldipyrido[3,2-a:2',3'-c]phenazine (dppm)], have been synthesized and characterized by elemental analysis, electrospray ionization mass spectrometry, UV-vis spectroscopy, Fourier transform IR spectroscopy, EPR spectroscopy, and X-ray crystallography. Crystal structures of both complexes, [V(IV)O(SAA)(bpy)].0.25bpy and [V(IV)O(SAA)(phen)].0.33H(2)O, reveal that oxovanadium(IV) is coordinated with one nitrogen and two oxygen atoms from the Schiff base and two nitrogen atoms from the bidentate planar ligands, in a distorted octahedral geometry (VO(3)N(3)). The oxidation state of V(IV) with d(1) configuration was confirmed by EPR spectroscopy. The speciation of VO-SAA-bpy in aqueous solution was investigated by potentiomtreic pH titrations, and the results revealed that the main species are two ternary complexes at a pH range of 7.0-7.4, and one is the isolated crystalline complex. The complexes have been found to be potent inhibitors against human protein tyrosine phosphatase 1B (PTP1B) (IC(50) approximately 30-61 nM), T-cell protein tyrosine phosphatase (TCPTP), and Src homology phosphatase 1 (SHP-1) in vitro. Interestingly, the [V(IV)O(SAA)(bpy)] complex selectively inhibits PTP1B over the other two phosphatases (approximate ninefold selectivity against SHP-1 and about twofold selectivity against TCPTP). Kinetics assays suggest that the complexes inhibit PTP1B in a competitive and reversible manner. These suggest that the complexes may be promising candidates as novel antidiabetic agents.
