Enantiomeric pair of copper(II) polypyridyl-alanine complexes: Effect of chirality on their interaction with biomolecules.

Like chiral organic drugs, the chemical and biological properties of metal complexes can be dependent on chirality. Two pairs of [Cu(phen)(ala)(H2O)]X·xH2O (phen=1.10-phenanthroline: X=NO3(-); ala: l-alanine (l-ala), 1 and d-alanine (d-ala) 2; and (X=Cl(-); ala: l-ala, 3 and d-ala, 4) complex salts (x=number of lattice water molecules) have been synthesized and characterized. The crystal structure of 3 has been determined. The same pair of enantiomeric species, viz. [Cu(phen)(l-ala)(H2O)](+) and [Cu(phen)(d-ala)(H2O)](+), have been identified to be present in the aqueous solutions of both 1 and 3, and in those of both 2 and 4 respectively. Both 3 and 4 bind more strongly to ds(AT)6 than ds(CG)6. There is no or insignificant effect of the chirality of 3 and 4 on the production of hydroxyl radicals, binding to deoxyribonucleic acid from calf thymus (CT-DNA), ds(CG)6, G-quadruplex and 17-base pair duplex, and inhibition of both topoisomerase I and proteasome. Among the three proteasome proteolytic sites, the trypsin-like site is inhibited most strongly by these complexes. However, the chirality of 3 and 4 does affect the number of restriction enzymes inhibited, and their binding constants towards ds(AT)6 and serum albumin.

Ternary copper(II)-polypyridyl enantiomers: aldol-type condensation, characterization, DNA-binding recognition, BSA-binding and anticancer property.

Chiral enantiomers [Cu(phen)(L-threo)(H2O)]NO3 1 and [Cu(phen)(D-threo)(H2O)]NO3 2 (threo = threoninate) underwent aldol-type condensation with formaldehyde, with retention of chirality, to yield their respective enantiomeric ternary copper(II) complexes, viz. L- and D-[Cu(phen)(5MeOCA)(H2O)]NO3·xH2O (3 and 4; phen = 1,10-phenanthroline; 5MeOCA = 5-methyloxazolidine-4-carboxylate; x = 0-3) respectively. These chiral complexes were characterized by FTIR, elemental analysis, circular dichroism, UV-Visible spectroscopy, fluorescence spectroscopy (FL), molar conductivity measurement, ESI-MS and X-ray crystallography. Analysis of restriction enzyme inhibition by these four complexes revealed modulation of DNA binding selectivity by the type of ligand, ligand modification and chirality. Their interaction with bovine serum albumin was investigated by FL and electronic spectroscopy. With the aid of the crystal structure of BSA, spectroscopic evidence suggested their binding at the cavity containing Trp134 with numerous Tyr residues in subdomain IA. The products were more antiproliferative than cisplatin against cancer cell lines HK-1, MCF-7, HCT116, HSC-2 and C666-1 except HL-60, and were selective towards nasopharyngeal cancer HK-1 cells over normal NP69 cells of the same organ type.