Gong-Jun Chen

Study on potential antitumor mechanism of a novel Schiff base copper(II) complex: synthesis, crystal structure, DNA binding, cytotoxicity and apoptosis induction activity.

A new cytotoxic copper(II) complex with Schiff base ligand [Cu(II)(5-Cl-pap)(OAc)(H(2)O)]·2H(2)O (1) (5-Cl-pap=N-2-pyridiylmethylidene-2-hydroxy-5-chloro-phenylamine), was synthesized and structurally characterized by X-ray diffraction. Single-crystal analysis revealed that the copper atom shows a 4+1 pyramidal coordination, a water oxygen appears in the apical position, and three of the basal positions are occupied by the NNO tridentate ligand and the fourth by an acetate oxygen. The interaction of Schiff base copper(II) complex 1 with DNA was investigated by UV-visible spectra, fluorescence spectra and agarose gel electrophoresis. The apparent binding constant (K(app)) value of 6.40×10(5) M(-1) for 1 with DNA suggests moderate intercalative binding mode. This copper(II) complex displayed efficient oxidative cleavage of supercoiled DNA, which might indicate that the underlying mechanism involve hydroxyl radical, singlet oxygen-like species, and hydrogen peroxide as reactive oxygen species. In addition, our present work showed the antitumor effect of 1 on cell cycle and apoptosis. Flow cytometric analysis revealed that HeLa cells were arrested in the S phase after treatment with 1. Fluorescence microscopic observation indicated that complex 1 can induce apoptosis of HeLa cells, whose process was mediated by intrinsic mitochondrial apoptotic pathway owing to the activation of caspase-9 and caspase-3.

Synthesis, DNA binding, photo-induced DNA cleavage, cytotoxicity and apoptosis studies of copper(II) complexes.

Two new Cu(II) complexes, [Cu(acac)(dpq)Cl] (1) and [Cu(acac)(dppz)Cl] (2) (acac = acetylacetonate, dpq = dipyrido[3,2-d:20,30-f]quinoxaline, dppz = dipyrido[3,2-a:20,30-c] phenazine), have been synthesized and their DNA binding, photo-induced DNA cleavage activity and cell cytotoxicity are studied. The complexes show good binding propensity to calf thymus DNA in the order: 2(dppz) >1(dpq). Furthermore, two complexes exhibit efficient DNA cleavage activity on natural light or UV-A (365 nm) irradiation via a mechanistic pathway involving formation of singlet oxygen as the reactive species. The photo-induced DNA cleavage activity of the dppz complex 2 is found to be more efficient than its dpq analogue. In vitro study of the photocytotoxicity of two complexes on HeLa cells indicate that both of them have the potential to act as effective anticancer drugs, with IC(50) values of 5.25±0.83 μM (1) and 4.40±0.52 μM (2) in the natural light, and 2.57±0.92 μM (1) and 2.18±0.52 μM (2) in UV-A light. In addition, to detect an apoptotic HeLa body, cells were stained with Hoechst 33342 dye.

A case study of the ZnII-BDC/bpt mixed-ligand system: positional isomeric effect, structural diversification and luminescent properties

To systematically investigate the influence of the positional isomeric ligands on the structures and properties of transition metal complexes, we synthesized eight Zn(II) complexes with three positional isomeric carboxylate ligands (p-BDC, m-BDC and o-BDC) and three positional isomeric dipyridyl bridging ligands (4,4′-bpt, 3,4′-bpt and 3,3′-bpt). {[Zn2(p-BDC)2(4,4′-bpt)2]·H2O·(C2H5OH)}n (1), {[Zn(p-BDC)(3,4′-bpt)2(H2O)2]·2H2O}n (2), {[Zn(p-BDC)(3,3′-bpt)2(H2O)2]·3H2O}n (3), {[Zn2(m-BDC)2(4,4′-bpt)(H2O)3]·H2O}n (4), [Zn(m-BDC)(3,4′-bpt)]n (5), {[Zn(m-BDC)(3,3′-bpt)]·H2O}n (6), [Zn(o-BDC)(4,4′-bpt)]n (7) and [Zn2(o-BDC)2(3,4′-bpt)]n (8) (p-BDC = 1,4-benzenedicarboxylate anion, m-BDC =1,3-benzenedicarboxylate anion, o-BDC = 1,2-benzenedicarboxylate anion, 4,4′-bpt = 1H-3,5-bis(4-pyridyl)-1,2,4-triazole, 3,4′-bpt = 1H-3-(3-pyridyl)-5-(4-pyridyl)-1,2,4-triazole and 3,3′-bpt = 1H-3,5-bis(3-pyridyl)-1,2,4-triazole). Structural analysis reveals that the benzenedicarboxylate isomers display versatile coordination modes to manage the Zn(II) ions to form 1D chains (for 2–5, 7 and 8) or 2D layers (for 1 and 6), which are further extended via the isomeric bpt connectors in different directions to give rise to a variety of coordination polymers, such as 1D decorated chain, 1D ladder-like chain, 2D sql layer, 2D bilayer with 82·10 topology, 2D wave-like layer, 3D 2-fold interpenetrating porous pcu net and 3D CsCl net. These results indicate that the nature of isomeric benzenedicarboxylates and bpt ligands has an important effect on the structural topologies of such Zn(II) complexes. Moreover, the luminescent properties of the complexes have been briefly investigated.

Au@Cu(II)-MOF: Highly Efficient Bifunctional Heterogeneous Catalyst for Successive Oxidation-Condensation Reactions.

A new composite Au@Cu(II)-MOF catalyst has been synthesized via solution impregnation and full characterized by HRTEM, SEM-EDS, XRD, gas adsorption-desorption, XPS, and ICP analysis. It has been shown here that the Cu(II)-framework can be a useful platform to stabilize and support gold nanoparticles (Au NPs). The obtained Au@Cu(II)-MOF exhibits a bifunctional catalytic behavior and is able to promote selective aerobic benzyl alcohol oxidation-Knoevenagel condensation in a stepwise way.

Pillared cobalt–organic framework with an unprecedented (3,4,6)-connected architecture showing the coexistence of spin canting and long-range magnetic ordering

A novel (3,4,6)-connected 3D porous cobalt–organic framework formulated as {[Co2(Hbidc)2(bpt)2]·7H2O}n (1) (H3bidc = 1H-benzimidazole-5,6-dicarboxylic acid, bpt = 1H-3,5-bis(4-pyridyl)-1,2,4- triazole) has been hydrothermally synthesized and characterized by X-ray diffraction analysis. Compound 1, having a Co-Hbidc layer structure in which the layers are pillared by the bpt spacers in a 3D architecture, exhibits the coexistence of spin-canted weak ferromagnetism with TN = 10 K and long-range magnetic ordering.

Pd@Cu(II)-MOF-Catalyzed Aerobic Oxidation of Benzylic Alcohols in Air with High Conversion and Selectivity

A new 3D porous Cu(II)-MOF (1) was synthesized based on a ditopic pyridyl substituted diketonate ligand and Cu(OAc)2 in solution, and it features a 3D NbO motif which is determined by the X-ray crystallography. Furthermore, the Pd NPs-loaded hybrid material Pd@Cu(II)-MOF (2) was prepared based on 1 via solution impregnation, and its structure was confirmed by HRTEM, SEM, XRPD, gas adsorption-desorption, and ICP measurement. 2 exhibits excellent catalytic activity (conversion, 93% to >99%) and selectivity (>99% to benzaldehydes) for various benzyl alcohol substrates (benzyl alcohol and its derivatives with electron-withdrawing and electron-donating groups) oxidation reactions in air. In addition, 2 is a typical heterogeneous catalyst, which was confirmed by hot solution leaching experiment, and it can be recycled at least six times without significant loss of its catalytic activity and selectivity.

Synthesis, DNA binding, photo-induced DNA cleavage and cell cytotoxicity studies of a family of light rare earth complexes

A family of light rare earth complexes, [RE(acac)(3)(dpq)] (RE=La (1), Ce (2), Pr (3), Nd (4), Sm (5)) and [RE(acac)(3)(dppz)].CH(3)OH (RE=La (6), Ce (7), Pr (8), Nd (9), Sm (10) viz. acetylacetonate (acac), dipyrido[3,2-d:20,30-f]quinoxaline (dpq), dipyrido[3,2-a:20,30-c] phenazine (dppz)), have been synthesized and structurally characterized. Binding interactions of these complexes with CT-DNA and their photo-induced DNA cleavage activity with pBR 322 DNA are also investigated. These complexes have strong DNA binding interaction (K(b)≈10(5)M(-1) and K(app)≈10(5)M(-1))and the binding propensity to CT-DNA decrease with the order: dppz complexes>dpq complexes. Furthermore, DNA photocleavage experiments indicate that these complexes are efficient DNA cleaving agents in UV-A (365 nm) and ambient light in the absence of any external reagents. Hydroxyl radical (HO(•)) and singlet oxygen ((1)O(2)) are the major cleavage active species from the machanistic studies. Moreover, cell cytotoxicity studies of these complexes on HeLa, K562 and MDA-MB-231 cells indicate that they have the potential to act as effective metal-based anti-cancer drugs.

Synthesis, DNA binding, photo-induced DNA cleavage, cytotoxicity studies of a family of heavy rare earth complexes

As a continuing investigation of our previous studies about the influence of the different rare earth metal ions on the bioactivity, a family of heavy rare earth metal complexes, [RE(acac)3(dpq)] (RE=Tb (1), Dy (2), Ho (3), Er (4), Tm (5), Yb (6), Lu (7)) and [RE(acac)3(dppz)]·CH3OH (RE=Tb (8), Dy (9), Ho (10), Er (11), Tm (12), Yb (13), Lu (14) viz. acetylacetonate (acac), dipyrido[3,2-d:20,30-f]quinoxaline (dpq), dipyrido[3,2-a:20,30-c] phenazine (dppz)), has been synthesized and their biological activities were also investigated. On the irradiation with UV-A light of 365nm or ambient light, all complexes exhibit efficient DNA cleavage activity via the mechanistic pathway involving the formation of singlet oxygen and hydroxyl radical as the reactive species. In addition, the in vitro cytotoxicity of these complexes on HeLa cells has been examined by MTT assay, which indicate that these compounds have the potential to act as effective anticancer drugs. The results of the above biological experiments also reveal that the choice of different rare earth metal ions has little influence on the DNA binding, DNA cleavage and cytotoxicity.

Dual Heterogeneous Catalyst Pd–Au@Mn(II)-MOF for One-Pot Tandem Synthesis of Imines from Alcohols and Amines

A new Mn(II) metal-organic framework (MOF) 1 was synthesized by the combination of 4,4,4-trifluoro-1-(4-(pyridin-4-yl)phenyl)butane-1,3-dione (L) and Mn(OAc)2 in solution. 1 features a threefold-interpenetrating NbO net containing honeycomb-like channels, in which the opposite Mn(II)···Mn(II) distance is 23.5075(10) Å. Furthermore, 1 can be an ideal platform to support Pd-Au bimetallic alloy nanoparticles to generate a composite catalytic system of Pd-Au@Mn(II)-MOF (2). 2 can be a highly active bifunctional heterogeneous catalyst for the one-pot tandem synthesis of imines from benzyl alcohols and anilines and from benzyl alcohols and benzylamines.