New approach for the preparation of efficient DNA cleaving agents: ditopic copper-platinum complexes based on 3-Clip-Phen and cisplatin.

The design and synthesis of new heterodinuclear DNA-targeting agents are described. The abilities of cisplatin and Cu(3-Clip-Phen) [Cu(1-(1,10-phenanthrolin-3-yloxy)-3-(1,10-phenanthrolin-8-yloxy)propan-2-amine)Cl2], an artificial DNA-cleaving agent, have been combined through their "covalent coupling". This strategy has led to bifunctional complexes that are able to cleave the DNA in a double-stranded fashion in contrast to Cu(3-Clip-Phen) alone and have promising cytotoxicities compared to cisplatin in several cell lines.