Photo-activated cytotoxicity of a pyrenyl-terpyridine copper(II) complex in HeLa cells

Terpyridine copper(II) complexes Cu(L)(2)](NO3)(2) where L is (4'-phenyl)-2 2' 6' 2 `'-terpyridine (ph-tpy in 1) and 4-(1 pyrenyl)]-2 2' 6' 2'-terpyridine (py-tpy in 2) are prepared characterized and their photocytotoxic activity studied The crystal structure of complex 1 shows distorted octahedral CuN6 coordination geometry The 1 2 electrolytic and one-electron paramagnetic complexes show a visible band near 650 nm in DMF-H2O The complexes show emission band at 352 nm for 1 and 425 nm for 2 when excited at 283 and 346 nm respectively The Cu(II)-Cu(I) redox couple is observed near -0 2 V versus SCE in DMF-0 1 m TBAP The complexes are avid partial-intercalative binders to calf thymus DNA giving binding constant (K-b) values of similar to 10(6) M-1 Complex 2 with its photoactive pyrenyl moiety exhibits significant photocleavage of pUC19 DNA in red light via singlet oxygen pathway Complex 2 also exhibits significant photo-activated cytotoxicity in HeLa cancer cells in visible light giving IC50 value of 11 9 mu M while being non-toxic in dark with an IC50 value of 130 5 mu M (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd All rights reserved