Sonochemical Synthesis and Characterization of the Copper(II) Nanocomplex: DNA- and BSA-Binding, Cell Imaging, and Cytotoxicity Against the Human Carcinoma Cell Lines.

The focus of the present work is the preparation of new metal-based nanodrug to overcome limitations of chemotherapy such as poor water solubility of most common chemotherapeutic drugs. The copper(II) complex of 1,2,4-triazine derivatives, Cu(dppt)2(H2O)2 (dppt is 5,6-diphenyl- 3- (2-pyridyl)-1,2,4-triazine), has been synthesized at nano-size by sonochemical method and characterized by FTIR, zetasizer, and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The interaction of the complex and nanocomplex with fish sperm DNA (FS-DNA) and BSA have been investigated under physiological conditions by a series of experimental methods. The results have indicated that the complex binds to FS-DNA by two biding modes, viz., electrostatic and intercalates into the base pairs of DNA. The competitive study with ethidium bromide (EB) shows that the complex and nanocomplex competes for the DNA-binding sites with EB. Protein binding studies show that the complex and nanocomplex could bind with BSA. The results of synchronous fluorescence of BSA show that additions of the complex affect the microenvironment of both tyrosine and tryptophan residues during the binding process. The in vitro cytotoxicity of the complex (solution in DMSO) and nanocomplex (colloid in H2O) against the human carcinoma cell lines (MCF-7 and A-549) was evaluated by MTT assay. The results of in vitro cytotoxicity indicate that the complex and nanocomplex have excellent cytotoxicity activity against MCF-7 and A-549. Results of the microscopic analyses of the cancer cells confirm the results of the cytotoxicity.