New Bioactive Heteroleptic Copper(II) Carboxylates: Structure, Enzymatic and DNA-Binding Studies

Abstract

Two new binuclear O-bridged copper(II) carboxylates with chemical formulas [Cu₂(3-ClC₆H₄CH₂COO)₄(phen)₂] (1) and [Cu₂(3-ClC₆H₄CH₂COO)₄(bipy)₂] (2) where phen = 1,10-phenanthroline and bipy = 2,2′-bipyridine have been synthesized and characterized by FT-IR, UV-Visible spectroscopy, CHN analysis and single crystal XRD. The results revealed distorted square pyramidal geometry around each copper atom of 1 and 2. The DNA interaction studies showed strong binding with K_b = 5.07×10³ and 4.62×10³ M^–1 for 1 and 2, respectively. Both complexes showed strong enzyme inhibition, i.e., 70 % and 90 % for α-glucosidase with IC₅₀ = 34.6 and 30.1 µM for 1 and 2, respectively, where acarbose was employed as control. However, both the complexes were found inactive against α-amylase. Using galantamine hydrobromide as control, 1 showed moderate inhibition activity (47 %) with IC₅₀ = 179.4 µM for acetylcholine esterase whereas 2 showed strong inhibition activity (76 %) with IC₅₀ = 95.8 µM for butyrylcholine esterase. The data reflects active anti-diabetic and anti-Alzheimer’s nature of the synthesized complexes.