[Luminescence dynamics analysis on ruthenium polypyridyl complexes bonding to DNA]

Time-resolved spectra of six kinds of ruthenium polypyridyl complexes [Ru(L)2 (R)]2+ (L = bpy, phen, bpy = 2,2'-bipyridine, phen = 1,10-phenanthroline, R = 7-CH3-dppz, 7-F-dppz, dpbpd(NH2)2) bonding to calf thymus DNA in aqueous solution were compared and analyzed by using the three energy level kinetic model. And the effects of the substituent groups on the interaction ways for the ruthenium complexes bonding to DNA were discussed. The result shows that first, the six complexes all show two binding modes on bonding to DNA, i.e. the side-on binding mode and the perpendicular binding mode, and the later one is considered as a main binding way. Second, the properties of substituent groups have an important impact on the relative weight of the two binding modes. The conclusion offers a dynamics argument to study the interaction mechanism for the complex bonding to DNA further.

Experimental and DFT studies on DNA binding and photocleavage of two cationic porphyrins. Effects of the introduction of a carboxyphenyl into pyridinium porphyrin

The DNA-binding affinities and DNA photocleavage abilities of cationic porphyrin, 5-(4-carboxyphenyl)-10,15,20-tris(4-methylpyridiniumyl)porphyrin (CTMPyP), and its reference compound meso-tetrakis(N-methyl-4-pyridiniumyl)porphyrin (H2TMPyP) have been investigated. The DNA-binding behaviors of the two compounds in NaH2PO4 buffer were compared systematically by using absorption, fluorescence and circular dichroism (CD) spectra, thermal denaturation as well as viscosity measurements. The experimental results show that CTMPyP binds to DNA in an outside binding mode, while H2TMPyP in an intercalative mode. Photocleavage experiments reveal that both two compounds employ 1O2-mediated mechanism in cleaving DNA and H2TMPyP can cleave DNA more efficiently than CTMPyP. Theoretical calculations were carried out with the density functional theory (DFT), and the calculated results indicate that the character and energies of some frontier orbitals of CTMPyP are quite different from those of H2TMPyP. These theoretical results can be used to explain their different DNA-binding modes and affinities to a certain extent.