Unleashing the binding interaction of chrysin-Cu(II) complex with the biomacromolecular targets: further studies of cell cytotoxicity and radical scavenging properties

Abstract

Flavonoids are significant dietary components and have ability to coordinate with metal ions to produce novel drug discovery leads that are superior to those of the parent flavonoids. Here, in this report, we have synthesized chrysin-Cu(II) complex (as per reported article) and characterized it further with different analytical techniques. The synthesized complex was evaluated for radical scavenging and cell cytotoxicity studies where it exhibited enhanced activity as compared to bare chrysin. The interaction studies of the complex with ct-DNA (K_b ⁓ 10⁵ M⁻¹), human serum albumin (HSA) and ovalbumin (K_b ⁓ 10⁴ M⁻¹) were evaluated using multi-spectroscopic and molecular docking studies. Groove binding mode with ct-DNA was observed as confirmed from competitive displacement studies, viscosity measurement, melting temperature estimation and docking analyses. The complex exhibited comparatively higher affinity towards ct-DNA which indicated it efficient transportation by the carrier proteins and controlled release in the target DNA.

Communicated by Ramaswamy H. Sarma

Keywords:

• ct-DNA
• cytotoxicity
• chrysin-Cu(II) complex
• molecular recognition
• ovalbumin
• radical scavenging

Acknowledgments

SS and ASR thank Department of Bioscience and Bioengineering, IIT Guwahati for CD experiments. SS and ASR also thanks SAIC, Tezpur University for CHN analysis and SAIF, IIT Bombay for ESR analysis. The authors are grateful to NIT Meghalaya for providing other instrumental facilities.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Author’s contribution

Sharat Sarmah: Conceptualization, Investigation, Software, Formal analysis and Writing-Original draft. Ibemhanbi Konthoujam: Investigation (cell cytotoxicity studies). Vivek Prakash: Investigation. Kripamoy Aguan: Investigation (cell cytotoxicity studies). Atanu Singha Roy: Supervision, Project administration, Validation, Writing - Review & Editing, Funding acquisition.

Additional information

Funding

ASR thanks Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR, Gov’t of India) (file no. 01/2903/17/EMR-II) for financial support to carry out the research works.