Synthesis, characterization, DNA interaction and cleavage, and in vitro cytotoxicity of copper(II) mixed-ligand complexes with 2-phenyl-3-hydroxy-4(1H)-quinolinone

A series of mixed-ligand complexes [Cu(qui)(L)]NO3·xH2O (1–6), where Hqui = 2-phenyl-3-hydroxy-4(1H)-quinolinone, L = 2,2′-bipyridine (bpy) (1), 1,10-phenanthroline (phen) (2), bis(2-pyridyl)amine (ambpy) (3), 5-methyl-1,10-phenanthroline (mphen) (4), 5-nitro-1,10-phenanthroline (nphen) (5) and bathophenanthroline (bphen) (6), have been synthesized and fully characterized. The X-ray structures of [Cu(qui)(phen)]NO3·H2O (2) and [Cu(qui)(ambpy)]NO3 (3a) show a slightly distorted square-planar geometry in the vicinity of the central copper(II) atom. An in vitro cytotoxicity study of the complexes found significant activity against human osteosarcoma (HOS) and human breast adenocarcinoma (MCF7) cell lines, with the best results for complex 6, where IC50 equals to 2.1 ± 0.2 μM, and 2.2 ± 0.4 μM, respectively. The strong interactions of the complexes with calf thymus DNA (CT-DNA) and high ability to cleave pUC19 DNA plasmid were found. A correlation has been found between the in vitro cytotoxicity and DNA cleavage studies of the complexes.