1,3,5-triazines (s-triazines) are a class of heterocyclic compounds bearing three N atoms in a symmetric molecular architecture. They have gained attention in synthetic chemistry and coordination chemistry due to the ease of derivatization of this scaffold into compounds with desired properties, especially favourable biological activities. Recent research work lays a solid background that these striazines can be synthesized via straightforward synthetic routes utilizing cyanuric chloride and related synthetic precursors. These synthetic strategies enable the successful synthesis of ligand systems with N, S, and O donors with the structurally interesting s-triazine moiety paving the pathway for them to coordinate with metal centres forming biologically relevant stable metal complexes. This review focuses on the growing importance of s-triazine based metal complexes for biological applications. Upon complexation with metal cores the solubility, electronic and geometric effects of these s-triazines can be modulated to offer better platforms to interact with biomolecules. As evident by recent literature, s-triazine derived metal complexes possess promising anticancer, antibacterial, and antiviral activities, leading to their recognition as important hybrid compounds at the interface of medicinal and inorganic chemistry with the potential to be developed as novel drug leads.
Keywords: 1,3,5-triazine, s-triazine, anticancer, antioxidant, antimicrobial activity
