Interaction of copper (II) complexes by bovine serum albumin: spectroscopic and calorimetric insights.

Serum albumins being the most abundant proteins in the blood and cerebrospinal fluid are significant carriers of essential transition metal ions in the human body. Studies of copper (II) complexes have gained attention because of their potential applications in synthetic, biological, and industrial processes. Study of binding interactions of such bioinorganic complexes with serum albumins improves our understanding of biomolecular recognition process essential for rational drug design. In the present investigation, we have applied quantitative approach to explore interactions of novel synthesized copper (II) complexes viz. [Cu(L1)(L2)ClO4] (complex I), [Cu(L2)(L3)]ClO4] (complex II) and [Cu(L4)2(H2O)2] (complex III) with bovine serum albumin (BSA) to evaluate their binding characteristics, site and mode of interaction. The fluorescence quenching of BSA initiated by complexation has been observed to be static in nature. The binding interactions are endothermic driven by entropic factors as confirmed by high sensitivity isothermal titration calorimetry. Changes in secondary and tertiary structure of protein have been studied by circular dichroism and significant reduction in α-helical content of BSA was observed upon binding. Site marking experiments with warfarin and ibuprofen indicated that copper complexes bind at site II of the protein.

Bio-affinity of copper(II) complexes with nitrogen and oxygen donor ligands: Synthesis, structural studies and in vitro DNA and HSA interaction of copper(II) complexes.

Reported herein the binding affinity between Human Serum Albumin and the DNA binding and cleavage activity of three copper(II) complexes, [Cu(phen)(o-van)ClO4] (1), [Cu(phen)(gly)]ClO4 (2) and [Cu(L1)2(H2O)2] (3) wherein 1 and 2 are synthesized with 1,10-phenanthroline (phen) and co-ligands (o-van: o-vanillin; gly: glycine) and 3 with a ligand 2-hydroxy-3-methoxybenzylidene-4H-1,2,4-triazol-4-amine (H1L1). Complex 2 crystallizes in monoclinic (P21/n) space group shows square pyramidal geometry. The complex 3 crystallizes in monoclinic (P21/a) space group. All the three complexes exhibit binding affinity towards the transport protein Human Serum albumin (HSA). Quantitative evaluation of the thermodynamics of interaction and the results obtained from fluorescence spectroscopy suggest that metal coordinated glycynate, o-vanillin and perchlorate groups have a major role to play in the binding process, the latter two being stronger in the binding of complex 1. The coordinated water in complex 3 also plays an important role in the binding, which makes binding of complex 3 with HSA stronger than that of complex 2. Experimental results indicate that the binding affinity of the complexes towards CT-DNA is in the order 1>3>2 implying that complex 1 binds stronger than complex 3 and 2.The DNA cleaving activity of all the three complexes was explored in the presence of reactive oxygen compound, H2O2. All the three complexes have primarily shown the DNA cleaving activity.