Rich spectroscopic and molecular dynamic studies on the interaction of cytotoxic Pt(II) and Pd(II) complexes of glycine derivatives with calf thymus DNA

Abstract

Some amino acid derivatives, such as R-glycine, have been synthesized together with their full spectroscopic characterization. The sodium salts of these bidentate amino acid ligands have been interacted with [M(bpy)(H₂O)₂](NO₃)₂ giving the corresponding some new complexes with formula [M(bpy)(R-gly)]NO₃ (where M is Pt(II) or Pd(II), bpy is 2,2′-bipyridine and R-gly is butyl-, hexyl- and octyl-glycine). Due to less solubility of octyl derivatives, the biological activities of butyl and hexyl derivatives have been tested against chronic myelogenous leukemia cell line, K562. The interaction of these complexes with highly polymerized calf thymus DNA has been extensively studied by means of electronic absorption, fluorescence and other measurements. The experimental results suggest that these complexes positive cooperatively bind to DNA presumably via groove binding. Molecular dynamic results show that the DNA structure is largely maintained its native structure in hexylglycine derivative–water mixtures and at lower temperatures. The simulation data indicates that the more destabilizing effect of butylglycine is induced by preferential accumulation of these molecules around the DNA and due to their more negative free energy of binding via groove binding.

Keywords:

• platinum and palladium complexes
• cytotoxicity
• amino acid derivative
• calf thymus DNA
• molecular dynamics simulation

Acknowledgments

Financial assistance from the Research Council of Chemistry & Chemical Engineering Research Center of Iran and of University of Sistan and Baluchestan and University of Tehran are gratefully acknowledged.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.