Copper(II) Complexes of a New Hydrazones with Aliphatic Groups: Synthesis, Characterisation and Nuclease Activity

Abstract

Two new copper(II) complexes of bidentate arylhydrazone ligands have prepared and studied. Elemental analysis, SEM-EDS, thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA), powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), and a number of spectroscopic techniques were used to determine the structures of the compounds (FTIR, UV-Vis, 1H and 13C-NMR). Using agarose gel electrophoresis, the DNA cleavage activities of the produced copper complexes were investigated in the absence and presence of hydrogen peroxide. It was also investigated the influence of compound dose on the DNA cleavage process. The results show that in the presence of an oxidant agent, all of the complexes break pBR322 DNA. At the concentration of 10 µM, [Cu(L1)2] converted the supercoil DNA into two forms, while [Cu(L1)2] formed only the nicked form. The mechanistic analyses show that the active oxidative species for DNA breakage is a species generated by hydrogen peroxide and the copper(II) metal. The compounds also cleaveged pBR322 DNA in the absence of H2O2, marginally.