Experimental and computational investigation of heteroatom substitution in nucleolytic Cu(ii) cyclen complexes for balancing stability and redox activity

Autor: Jan Hormann, Olga Verbitsky, Xiaoyu Zhou, Beatrice Battistella, Margarete van der Meer, Biprajit Sarkar, Cunyuan Zhao, Nora Kulak
Rok vydání: 2023
Předmět:
Zdroj: Dalton Transactions. 52:3176-3187
ISSN: 1477-9234
1477-9226
DOI: 10.1039/d2dt03284h
Popis: Cu(II) complexes of cyclen-based ligands CuL1–CuL6 were synthesized and characterized. The corresponding ligands L1–L6 comprise different donor sets including S and O atoms. Whereas cyclen (L1) is commercially available, L2–L6 were synthesized according to protocols available in the literature. Cleavage activity of the complexes towards plasmid DNA was tested in the presence and absence of ascorbate as a reducing agent (oxidative vs. hydrolytic cleavage). As previously shown, the substitution of N donor atoms with hard donor O atoms leads to efficient oxidative nucleases, but dissociation of the complex upon reduction. We thus opted for S substitution (soft donors) to stabilize the reduced Cu(I) species. Increasing the S content, however, leads to species that are difficult to reoxidize in order to ensure efficient oxidative DNA cleavage. We are showing by experimental (cyclic voltammetry) and computational means (DFT) that the rational combination of O and S atoms next to two nitrogen donors within the macrocycle (oxathiacyclen complex CuL6) leads to the stabilization of both redox states. The complex thus exhibits the highest oxidative DNA cleavage activity within this family of cyclen-based Cu(II) complexes – without leaching of the metal ion during reduction.
Databáze: OpenAIRE