Kushwaha R.Rai R.Gawande V.Singh V.Yadav A.K.Koch B.Dhar P.Banerjee S.2025-01-132025-01-13202414394227https://dl.bhu.ac.in/ir/handle/123456789/2582The increase in antibacterial drug resistance is threatening global health conditions. Recently, antibacterial photodynamic therapy (aPDT) has emerged as an effective antibacterial treatment with high cure gain. In this work, three Zn(II) complexes viz., [Zn(en)(acac)Cl] (1), [Zn(bpy)(acac)Cl] (2), [Zn(en)(cur)Cl] (3), where en=ethylenediamine (1 and 3), bpy=2,2�-bipyridine (2), acac=acetylacetonate (1 and 2), cur=curcumin monoanionic (3) were developed as aPDT agents. Complexes 1�3 were synthesized and fully characterized using NMR, HRMS, FTIR, UV-Vis. and fluorescence spectroscopy. The HOMO�LUMO energy gap (Eg), and adiabatic splittings (?S1?T1 and ?S0?T1) obtained from DFT calculation indicated the photosensivity of the complexes. These complexes have not shown any potent antibacterial activity under dark conditions but the antibacterial activity of these complexes was significantly enhanced upon light exposure (MIC value up to 0.025 ?g/mL) due to their light-mediated 1O2 generation abilities. The molecular docking study suggested that complexes 1�3 interact efficiently with DNA gyrase B (PDB ID: 4uro). Importantly, 1�3 did not show any toxicity toward normal HEK-293 cells. Overall, in this work, we have demonstrated the promising potential of Zn(II) complexes as effective antibacterial agents under the influence of visible light. � 2023 Wiley-VCH GmbH.en¹O₂ generationAntibacterial Photodynamic therapyDFT calculationMolecular dockingZinc complexesArticle10.1002/cbic.202300652