Designing, structural elucidation, comparison of DNA binding, cleavage, radical scavenging activity and anticancer activity of copper(I) complex with 5-dimethyl-2-phenyl-4-[(pyridin-2-ylmethylene)-amino]-1,2-dihydro-pyrazol-3-one Schiff base ligand

A novel copper(I) Schiff base complex has been synthesized and fully characterized by spectral, analytical and structural modes. Single crystal X-ray diffraction studies revealed that the copper(I) complex [CuCl(PPh3)L] has a distorted tetrahedral geometry around the central copper(I) ion. The interaction of the ligand and the complex with CT-DNA has been explored by absorption titration method which revealed that the compounds could interact with CT-DNA through intercalation. A gel electrophoresis assay demonstrated the ability of the complex to cleave the pBR322 DNA. The antioxidative properties showed that the copper(I) complex has a strong radical-scavenging potency than ligands. Further the cytotoxic effect of the compounds examined on cancerous cell lines showed that the complex exhibited substantial anticancer activity. (C) 2013 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.