Synthesis and Structure of 1D Copper(II) Polymers with Dissymmetrical N,N′-Bis(substituted)oxamide Ligands: Cytotoxicity and DNA-Binding Property

Abstract

Two one-dimensional copper(II) coordination polymers with different dissymmetrical N,N′-bis(substituted)oxamide ligands were synthesized, namely {[Cu2(dmaepox)(dabt)]pic·H2O}n (1) and {[Cu2(dmapob)(dabt)]NO3·0.6H2O}n (2), where H3dmaepox and H3dmapob stand for N-(2-carboxylatophenyl)-N′-[3-(methylamino)propyl]oxamidate and N-(2-carboxylatophenyl)-N′-[3-(dimethylamino)propyl]oxamidate, respectively, and dabt is 2‚2′-diamino-4‚4′-bithiazole. Polymer 1 was characterized by elemental analyses, IR and electronic spectra and single-crystal X-ray diffraction. The crystal structure reveals that polymer 1 consists of many binuclear copper(II) units bridged by cis-oxamide and carboxylate groups. The two copper(II) ions are located in square-planar and square-pyramidal coordination environments, respectively. The separations of the Cu(II) atoms bridged by oxamide and carboxylate groups are 5.2035(7) and 5.1196(7) A, respectively. The crystal structure of polymer 2 has been reported in our previous paper. However, its relative properties were not studied. In order to compare the influence of different bridging ligands on the cytotoxicities and DNA-binding properties, the cytotoxicities and reactivities towards DNA of polymers 1 and 2 were investigated. The results suggest that the two polymers can interact with herring sperm DNA in the mode of intercalation with binding affinities following the order of 1 > 2, and this is consistent with their in vitro cytotoxicities.