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Forty Years after the Discovery of Its Nucleolytic Activity: [Cu(phen) 2 ] 2+ Shows Unattended DNA Cleavage Activity upon Fluorination
Author(s) -
Lüdtke Carsten,
Sobottka Sebastian,
Heinrich Julian,
Liebing Phil,
Wedepohl Stefanie,
Sarkar Biprajit,
Kulak Nora
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
chemistry – a european journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.687
H-Index - 242
eISSN - 1521-3765
pISSN - 0947-6539
DOI - 10.1002/chem.202004594
Subject(s) - steric effects , chemistry , cleavage (geology) , dna , ligand (biochemistry) , stereochemistry , phenanthroline , dna damage , crystallography , biochemistry , receptor , biology , paleontology , fracture (geology)
[Cu( phen ) 2 ] 2+ ( phen =1,10‐phenanthroline) is the first and still one of the most efficient artificial nucleases. In general, when the phen ligand is modified, the nucleolytic activity of its Cu II complex is significantly reduced. This is most likely due to higher steric bulk of such ligands and thus lower affinity to DNA. Cu II complexes with phen ligands having fluorinated substituents (F, CF 3 , SF 5 , SCF 3 ) surprisingly showed excellent DNA cleavage activity—in contrast to the unsubstituted [Cu( phen ) 2 ] 2+ —in the absence of the otherwise required classical, bioabundant external reducing agents like thiols or ascorbate. This nucleolytic activity correlates well with the half‐wave potentials E 1/2 of the complexes. Cancer cell studies show cytotoxic effects of all complexes with fluorinated ligands in the low μ m range, whereas they were less toxic towards healthy cells (fibroblasts).