Mitochondria-Targeted Photoinduced Anticancer Activity of Oxidovanadium( IV) Complexes of Curcumin in Visible Light

Oxidovanadium(IV) complexes [VO(py-aebmz)(B)]Cl (1, 2) and [VO(napth-py-aebmz)(cur)]Cl [3; py-aebmz = 2-(1H-benzimidazol-2-yl)-N-(pyridin-2-ylmethylene)ethanamine, HB = acetylacetone (Hacac, 1) and curcumin (Hcur, 2), napth-py-aebmz = naphthalimide conjugated to py-aebmz ] have been prepared, characterized and their photoinduced DNA cleavage activities and photocytotoxicities studied. Complexes 1-3 each exhibited an irreversible cyclic voltammetric response of the V-IV/V-III redox couple at around -0.85 V versus SCE in dmf/0.1 M tbap. The complexes showed DNA photocleavage activity in visible light of 454, 530 and 647 nm through hydroxyl radical and singlet oxygen pathways. Fluorescence microscopy data suggest mitochondrial localization of complex 3 bearing a naphthalimide with a two-fold increase in photocytotoxicity in HaCaT cells with an IC50 value of 6.3 M and a three-fold increase in MCF-7 cells with an IC50 of 5.4 M compared with complex 2. Both 2 and 3 were non-toxic in the dark.