Interaction of bioessential metal ions with quinolone antibiotics: Structural features and biological evaluation

[Display omitted] •Structural features of the copper(II), zinc(II) and cobalt(II)-quinolone complexes are presented and discussed.•Antimicrobial and antitumor activity of the selected coordination compounds is assessed.•Binding affinity of selected coordination compounds to calf-thymus DNA, bovine and human serum albumins are investigated. Bioessential metal complexes with quinolone antibiotics as ligands attract wide attention in bioinorganic chemistry due to their greater biological potential that may lead to the synthesis of novel coordination compounds with enhanced pharmacological activity. In this review structural features of copper(II), zinc(II) and cobalt(II)-quinolone complexes are presented and discussed in detail. Antimicrobial and antitumor activity as well as the binding affinity of selected coordination compounds to calf-thymus DNA, bovine and human serum albumins are also investigated. Further perspectives related to the choice of the metal ion, quinolone ligand and various co-ligands are also discussed to clarify and predict the main factors that contribute to biological activity of the bioessential metal complexes.