Functional multi-nuclear copper complexes containing N and O ligands: Syntheses, crystal structures, and DNA binding studies

Metal-organic complexes, particularly copper complexes, are emerging as promising candidates for anticancer drug due to their versatile redox states. Two copper complexes ( complex1 and complex2 ) have been designed based on the ligands for 1,10-phenanthroline (phen), 4,5-diazofluoren-9-one (DAFO) and 1,4-terephthalic acid (1,4-BDC), and the structures have been determined by X-ray single crystal analysis. The interactions of the complexes with calf thymus DNA (CT-DNA) have been investigated using UV-vis absorption and viscosity measurements. The results indicate that the complex 1 and complex 2 respectively bind to CT-DNA, and the binding mode of the former is in electrostatic binding or groove mode, while that of the latter is in insertion mode. The complex 2 had better activity to break CT-DNA than complex 1 .