DNA Interaction and Cytotoxic Activity of a Chiral Amino-alcohol Schiff Base Derived Cu(II) Complex

A novel copper(II) complex based on chiral amino-alcohol derived Schiff base ligand, [Cu-4(R-L)(4)(H2O)(2)]center dot(CH3COOH)(2)center dot(H2O) (1, (R)-H2L = (R)-3-phenyl-2-(2-hydroxy-3-methoxybenzylideneamino) propane-l-ol), was synthesized and characterized by EA, IR, UV-Vis, ESI-MS, circular dichroism spectra and single-crystal X-ray diffraction. Complex 1 crystallizes in orthorhombic, space group P2(1)2(1)2 with a = 15.7660(14), b = 49.526(3), c = 10.4213(9) angstrom, V = 8137.2(12) angstrom(3), Z = 4, C72H81Cu4N4O19, M-r = 1560.57, mu = 1.096 mm(-1), F(000) = 3244, Flack = 0.06(3), the final R = 0.0924 and wR = 0.2451 (I > 2 sigma(I)) for 41108 observed reflections. The interactions of the complex with calf thymus DNA (CT-DNA) were investigated by some spectroscopic technique methods. The results show the complex exhibits strong binding with CT-DNA. In addition, in vitro cytotoxicity test of 1 towards four kinds of human cancerous cell lines (HeLa, HL-60, Caco-2 and A549) showed substantial cytotoxic activity. The experimental investigations indicated that the chirality of complex 1 play an important role in cytotoxicity and interactions with DNA.