Copper(II), cobalt(II) and nickel(II) complexes of lapachol: synthesis, DNA interaction, and cytotoxicity

Abstract

Three novel copper(II), cobalt(II), and nickel(II) complexes of lapachol (Lap) containing 110-phenanthroline (phen) ligand, [M(Lap)₂(phen)] (M=Cu(II), 1, Co(II), 2, and Ni(II), 3), have been synthesized and characterized using, elemental analysis and spectroscopic studies. Their interactions with calf thymus DNA (CT DNA) were investigated using viscosity, thermal denaturation, circular dichorism, fluorescence quenching, and electronic absorption spectroscopy. The DNA cleavage abilities of 1–3 have been studied, where cleavage activity of copper complex 1 is more than the complexes 2 and 3. The in vitro cytotoxic potential of the complexes 1–3 against human cervical carcinoma (HeLa), human liver hepatocellular carcinoma (HepG-2), and human colorectal adenocarcinoma (HT-29) cells indicated their promising antitumor activity with quite low IC₅₀ values in the range of .15–2.41 μM, which are lower than those of cisplatin.

Keywords:

• metal complex
• DNA binding
• cytotoxicity
• lapachol

Acknowledgements

We are grateful for the general support from the Department of Chemistry, Isfahan University of Technology (IUT).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Supplementary material

The supplementary material for this article is available online at http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/07391102.2016.1254118