Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Centro de Ciências Biológicas, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Bioquímica, Florianópolis, 2015.O desenvolvimento de novas moléculas e/ou novas metodologias para clivagem de DNA é um tema de crescente investimento nos últimos anos, seja na descoberta de novas ferramentas para biologia molecular ou de protótipos para fármacos antitumorais. Neste trabalho procurou-se determinar a interação e clivagem de DNA por novos complexos ternários de cobre(II) e que possuem atividade antitumoral frente a uma linhagem de células leucêmicas, com o intuito de determinar se sua atividade citotóxica está relacionada à capacidade de fragmentar DNA. Além disso, estudos da atividade de fotoclivagem de DNA (sob luz UV) foram realizados visando o seu potencial uso em terapia fotodinâmica. Paralelamente, uma potencial estratégia para o aumento da atividade de clivagem de DNA por complexos de Fe(III)Zn(II) foi caracterizada como forma prática para potencializar a atividade de agentes sintéticos que reconhecidamente clivam DNA. Os quatro novos complexos de cobre são: [Cu(hyd)(bpy)]2+ (Cu(hyd)(bpy), [Cu(hyd)(phen)]2+ (Cu(hyd)(phen), [Cu(S-hyd)(bpy)]2+ (Cu(S-hyd)(bpy) e [Cu(S-hyd)(phen)]2+ (Cu(S-hyd)(phen)), em que: hyd e S-hyd são a hidrazida do ácido 2-furóico e do ácido 2-tiofenocarboxílico e bpy e phen são os ligantes heterocíclicos 2,2?-bipiridina e 1,10-fenantrolina, respectivamente. Todos os quatro complexos foram capazes de clivar o DNA plasmidial de modo concentração-dependente e com diferentes eficiências. Alterações no pH não influenciaram na atividade dos complexos e sua atividade é proveniente da natureza química do complexo: ligante-metal-ligante. Interações eletrostáticas e ligação por sulco mostraram-se ser necessárias para o processo de clivagem de DNA que sugere-se ser predominantemente oxidativo. Os ensaios cinéticos confirmaram a ordem de reatividade dos complexos Cu(hyd)(bpy) Abstract : The development of new molecules and/or new strategies for DNA cleavage is an increasing investment issue in recent years for the discovery of new molecular biology tools or prototypes for antitumor drugs. In this study aimed to determine the DNA interaction and cleavage by new ternary complexes of copper(II) which have anti-tumor activity against a strain of leukemia cells in order to determine whether their cytotoxic activity is related to the ability to fragment DNA. In addition, DNA photocleavage studies (under UV light) were conducted to analyze their potential use in photodynamic therapy. Meanwhile, a potential strategy to increase the DNA cleavage activity of Fe(III)Zn(II) complexes was characterized as a practical way to enhance the activity of synthetic agents that are known to cleave DNA. The four new copper complexes are [Cu(hyd)(bpy)]2+ (Cu(hyd)(bpy), [Cu(hyd)(phen)]2+ (Cu(hyd)(phen), [Cu(S-hyd)(bpy)]2+ (Cu(S-hyd)(bpy) e [Cu(S-hyd)(phen)]2+ (Cu(S-hyd)(phen)) where: S-hyd and hyd are hydrazides from 2-furoic acid and 2-thiophenecarboxylic acid and bpy and phen are the heterocyclic ligands 2,2'-bipyridine and 1,10-phenanthroline, respectively. All four complexes were able to cleave the plasmid DNA in a concentration-dependent manner with different efficiencies. Changes in pH did not influence the activity of the complex and its activity should be derived from the chemical nature of the complex formation: ligand-metal-ligand. Electrostatic interactions and groove binding shown to be required for the DNA cleavage which, is suggested, be predominantly oxidative. The kinetic experiments confirmed the reactivity order of the complex Cu(hyd)(bpy) << Cu(hyd)(phen) ~ Cu(S-hyd)(bpy) < Cu(S-hyd)(phen) which follow the order of DNA affinity, indicating that the last three complexes are among the most reactive examples found in the literature. The speed of reaction and the ability to trigger cell death in tumor cells showed an excellent correlation suggesting that the antitumour activity of these molecules can be derived from the DNA cleavage activity. In photocleavage conditions, however, the reactivity order was: Cu(S-hyd)(bpy) < Cu(S-hyd)(phen) < Cu(hyd)(bpy) < Cu (hyd)(phen). The ratio of the observed rates of DNA photocleavage by DNA cleavage ranged from about 6 to 146-fold. Under conditions of photocleavage, no changes in DNA cleavage mechanism were found; suggesting that exposure to UV light should amplify the oxidative activity of the complexes towards DNA. Oligonucleotide cleavage assays revealed that all the complexes were able to fragment the DNA in a non-specific way, with scission events throughout the DNA molecule. Complexes containing phen ligand showed the best results was evidenced the formation of fragments containing terminal 3'-phosphoglycolate, whose formation is related to oxidative processes, reinforcing the hypothesis that these complexes cleaves the DNA for the generation of ROS. Circular Dichroism assays suggest that the DNA binding behavior of theses complexes must proceed as a non-intercalative way. In general, the tested four Cu(II) complexes showed as promise for development of new models complexes with antitumor activity linked to DNA cleavage. In addition, the use of UV light exposure was shown to be able to increase the activity of the complex, which moots a possible use as a prototype drug for Photodynamic Therapy. The studied Fe(III)Zn(II) complexes [FeIII-(µ-OH)ZnIILP1] (FeZnLP1) and [FeIII-(µ-OH)ZnIILP2] (FeZnLP1) are pyrene derivatives from [FeIII-(µ-OH)ZnIILH] complex (FeZnOH). Both complexes were able to cleave the plasmid DNA generating not only single- but also double-strand breaks, which were not observed for the FeZnOH complex. The pH variation strongly affects the activity of both complex and agrees with the hydrolysis of 2,4-BDNPP phosphate ester, suggesting that the same mechanism hydrolysis of the ester model can be applied to DNA. Both complexes had their activity strongly inhibited by the increasing addition of NaCl or NaClO4 suggesting the participation of electrostatic interactions between the complex and the DNA. None of ROS inhibitors were able to inhibit the activity of the complex, suggesting a predominantly hydrolytic mechanism which had already been seen with the FeZnOH complex. Both complexes have preference for interaction with the DNA minor groove, which was also observed in Circular Dichroism assays. Kinetic studies showed that introduction of a single pyrene group led to an increase of 11.3-fold compared to FeZnOH. Besides, the addition of two pyrene groups further increased this activity 18.6-fold. When comparing the FeZnLP1 to FeZnLP2 an increase of 1.65-fold was observed, confirming the previous results which showed that FeZnLP2 is more reactive than FeZnLP1. None of the complexes were able to cleave a short oligonucleotide, but DNAse footprinting assays revealed that the complexes tend to bind preferentially (and more affinity) to AT-rich regions and suggested that as much larger was the complex (in terms of volume), the greater is the extent of the interaction. In general, the substantial increase in activity of the modified pyrene complexes exemplifies the hypothesis that the introduction of groups that bind to DNA is a viable strategy to enhance the action of artificial DNA cleaving agents
