Biological activity and structure dependent properties of cuprous iodide complexes with phenanthrolines and water soluble tris (aminomethyl) phosphanes

Abstract

This paper presents the biological activity of copper(I) iodide complexes with 1,10-phenanthroline (phen) or 2,9-dimethyl-1,10-phenanthroline (dmp) and three tris (aminomethyl) phosphanes: P(CH2N(CH2CH2)2NCH3)3 (1), P(CH2N(CH2CH2)2O)3 (2) and P (CH2N(CH3)CH2CH2OH)3 (3). Crystallographic and DFT data indicate a significantly stronger binding ability of 3 in the complexes [CuI (phen) P (CH2N (CH3)CH2CH2OH)3] (3P) and [CuI(dmp)P(CH2N(CH3)CH2CH2OH)3] (3N) in comparison to the 1 or 2 ligands. Most probably, this is caused by the relatively small steric requirements of 3. The complexes with dmp exhibit a very high in vitro activity against the Staphylococcus aureus strain (MIC - minimal inhibitory concentration: 2.5-5 μg/mL) and Candida albicans diploid fungus (MIC: 1.25-2.5 μg/mL). All the tested complexes also show a strong in vitro antitumor activity against human ovarian carcinoma cell lines: MDAH 2774 (IC50: 7-2 μM) and cisplatin-resistant SCOV3 (IC50: 3-2 μM). Interestingly, the complexes with dmp of higher biological activity more weakly interact with bovine serum albumin (BSA) and less efficiently cleave the pBluescriptSK+ plasmid.