Biological Activity of New Cichoric Acid–Metal Complexes in Bacterial Strains, Yeast-Like Fungi, and Human Cell Cultures In Vitro

Cichoric acid (CA) belongs to the group of polyphenols, which occurs in a variety of plant species and it is characterized by anticancer, antibacterial, and antiviral properties. Selected polyphenols have the ability to combine with metal ions to form chelate complexes that reveal greater biological activity than free compounds. In order to study possible antimicrobial and anticancer effect of CA and its complexes with copper(II)/zinc(II)/nickel(II)/cobalt(II) we decided to conduct cytotoxicity tests to estimate the most effective concentrations of tested compounds. The results of the presented study demonstrated, for the first time, that the treatment with newly synthesized CA-metal complexes has anticancer and antimicrobial effects, which were examined in seven different cell lines: MCF-7, MDA-MB-231, and ZR-75-1 breast cancer cell lines, A375 melanoma cell line, DLD-1 cell line, LN-229 cell line, FN cell line; five bacterial strains: Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus epidermidis, Proteus vulgaris, Lactobacillus rhamnosus, yeast Sacchcaromyces boulardii, and pathogenic yeast-like fungi Candida albicans. The presented study indicates that CA-metal complexes could be considered as a potential supplementary tool in anticancer therapy, however, because of their possible toxic activity on fibroblasts, they should be used with caution. Some of the tested complexes have also preservative properties and positive influence on normal non-pathogenic microorganisms, which was demonstrated in selected microbial strains, therefore they may serve as food preservatives of natural origin with cytoprotective properties.