Synthesis and crystal structure of binuclear copper(II) complex bridged by N-(2-hydroxyphenyl)-N'-[3-(diethylamino)propyl]oxamide: in vitro anticancer activity and reactivity toward DNA and protein.

A new oxamido-bridged bicopper(II) complex, Cu2(pdpox)(bpy)(CH3OH), where H3pdpox and bpy stand for N-(2-hydroxyphenyl)-N'-[3-(diethylamino)propyl]oxamide and 2,2'-bipyridine, respectively, has been synthesized and characterized by elemental analyses, molar conductivity measurements, infrared and electronic spectra studies, and X-ray single crystal diffraction. In the crystal structure, the pdpox(3-) ligand bridges two copper(II) ions as cisoid conformation. The inner copper(II) ion has a {N3O} square-planar coordination geometry, while the exo- one is in a {N2O3} square-pyramidal environment. There are two sets of interpenetrating two-dimensional hydrogen bonding networks parallel to the planes (2 1 0) and (21¯0), respectively, to form a three-dimensional supramolecular structure. The bicopper(II) complex exhibits cytotoxic activity against the SMMC7721 and A549 cell lines. The reactivity toward herring sperm DNA and bovine serum albumin revealed that the bicopper(II) complex can interact with the DNA by intercalation mode, and the complex binds to protein BSA responsible for quenching of tryptophan fluorescence by static quenching mechanism.