Synthesis of three new copper(II) compounds for chemodynamic therapy against cancer cells

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Cu(II) compounds hold great promise for chemodynamic therapy (CDT) against cancer cells because they are able to catalyze the hydrogen peroxide to form cytotoxic hydroxyl radicals by fenton-like reaction. In this paper, three Cu(II) compounds based on substituted pyridyl-thienyl-1,2,4-triazole [Cu(L1)2(ClO4)2]∙2MeCN (1) [Cu(L2)2(MeOH)2](ClO4)2 (2) and [Cu(L3)2(NO3)2]∙3H2O (3) [L1 = (3-(2-pyridyl)-4-(p-chlorophenyl)-5-(2-thienyl)-1,2,4-triazole, L2 = 3-(2-pyridyl)-4-phenyl-5-(2-thienyl)-1,2,4-triazole and L3 = 3-(2-pyridyl)-4-(p-methoxyphenyl)-5-(2-thienyl)-1,2,4-triazole) were designed and synthesized by a simple method. These compounds with mononuclear structure show considerable cytotoxicity towards human cervical cancer cells (HeLa). The MTT assay suggests that compound 2 with lowest half maximum inhibitory concentration (IC50) is the most cytotoxic, compared with compounds 1 and 3. In addition, the cytotoxicity was also confirmed by the live/dead con-stained experiment. Finally, the flow cytometry demonstrates that these compounds are capable of inducing cell apoptosis by the hydroxyl radicals.