Copper( ii ) complex of methionine conjugated bis-pyrazole based ligand promotes dual pathway for DNA cleavage

Three CuII complexes of bis-pyrazole based ligands have been synthesized and structurally characterized by X-ray crystallography. One of the ligand (L2) contains a methionine ester conjugated to a bis-pyrazole carboxylate through an amide linkage. The binding constant for complexes 1–3 with CT DNA are of the order of 104 M−1. The crystal structure suggests that the axial Cu–O bonds (ca. 2.31(4) A) are relatively labile and hence during the redox cycle with ascorbic acid and oxygen one or both the axial Cu–O bonds might open to promote copper oxygen reaction and generate ROS. The chemical nuclease activity of complexes 1–3 in dark, show complete relaxation of supercoiled DNA at 100 μM concentration in presence of ascorbic acid (H2A). The mechanistic investigation suggests that the complexes 1 and 2 show involvement of peroxo species whereas 3 shows involvement of both singlet oxygen and peroxo species in DNA cleavage. The singlet oxygen formation in dark is otherwise unfavourable but the presence of methionine as pendant arm in L2 might activate the generation of singlet oxygen from the metal generated peroxo species. The results of DNA cleavage studies suggest that methionine based copper(II) complexes can promote dual pathway for DNA cleavage. Probing the cytotoxic activity of these complexes on MCF-7, human breast cancer cell line shows that 3 is the most effective one with an IC50 of 70(2) μM.