Oxidative cleavage of plasmid bluescript by water-soluble Mn-porphyrins and artificial oxidants or molecular oxygen.

A set of eight Mn(III)-porphyrins were used as catalysts in oxidative demolition of Plasmid Bluescript, to the nicked and linear forms, in the presence of different oxygen donors (NaOCl, H(2)O(2), AcOOH, t-BuOOH). The efficiency of the catalytic system is related to a combination of factors such as porphyrin structures, pH of the aqueous phase and nature of the primary oxidant. The highest catalytic activity was observed when ionic porphyrins were used as catalyst (the cationic being more active than the anionic) and NaOCl was used as primary oxidant at pH 9.5; in contrast, lipophilic catalysts proved to be completely unreactive towards the DNA, whichever oxidant used. The plasmid demolition was also achieved by irradiating the reaction mixture, containing Zinc porphyrins, with a white lamp; under these conditions, the highest efficiency was again observed with meso-tetra(1-methyl-4-pyridyl)porphyrin. However, preliminary experiments of photo activation applied on tumour cells (HCT 116) showed no dead cells with cationic porphyrin, while the amphiphilic Zn-tetra(4-hydroxyphenyl)porphyrin gave IC(50) values at 5 x 10(-2) microM concentration (37.1 ng/mL).