Binding of Europium(III) to a Non-Nucleosidic Phenanthroline Linker in DNA

Synthesis and Electrochemical and Spectroscopic Characterization of 4,7-diamino-1,10-phenanthrolines and Their Precursors

New approaches to the synthesis of 4,7-dichloro-1,10-phenanthrolines and their corresponding 9H-carbazol-9-yl-, 10H-phenothiazin-10-yl- and pyrrolidin-1-yl derivatives were developed. Their properties have been characterized by a combination of several techniques: MS, HRMS, GC-MS, electronic absorption spectroscopy and multinuclear NMR in both solution and solid state including ¹⁵N CP/MAS NMR. The structures of 5-fluoro-2,9-dimethyl-4,7-di(pyrrolidin-1-yl)-1,10-phenanthroline (5d), 4,7-di(9H-carbazol-9-yl)-9-oxo-9,10-dihydro-1,10-phenanthroline-5-carbonitrile (6a) and 4,7-di(10H-phenothiazin-10-yl)-1,10-phenanthroline-5-carbonitrile (6b) were determined by single-crystal X-ray diffraction measurements. The nucleophilic substitutions of hydrogen followed by oxidation produced compounds 6a and 6b. The electrochemical properties of selected 1,10-phenanthrolines were investigated using cyclic voltammetry and compared with commercially available reference 1,10-phenanthrolin-5-amine (5l). The spatial distribution of frontier molecular orbitals of the selected compounds has been calculated by density functional theory (DFT). It was shown that potentials of reduction and oxidation were in consistence with the level of HOMO and LUMO energies.

On the preferences of five-membered chelate rings in coordination chemistry: insights from the Cambridge Structural Database and theoretical calculations

The purpose of this review is to give an overview of three important N-bidentate ligands: 1,10-phenanthroline (phen), 2,2'-bipyridine (bpy), and ethylenediamine (en). We have not attempted to be comprehensive because of the huge amount of activity being done in coordination chemistry using these ligands. Instead we present a full structural and geometrical study by using the Cambridge Structural Database (CSD) combined with theoretical calculations that allow us to parameterize their coordinating properties and ability to coordinate to transition and non-transition metals. More importantly, we illustrate that upon coordination and formation of the five-membered chelate ring, these ligands are able to adapt themselves to the requirements of the different metals by changing the MN distances and NMN angles. Therefore, a redefinition of the preferences of these ligands to metals with large ionic radii is needed. Finally, we will present some facts about the participation of these ligands in inorganic-organic hybrids (IOHs) based on Keggin polyoxometalates (POMs).

Specific chiral sensing of amino acids using induced circularly polarized luminescence of bis(diimine)dicarboxylic acid europium(III) complexes

The circularly polarized luminescence (CPL) from [Eu(pda)2](-) (pda = 1,10-phenanthroline-2,9-dicarboxylic acid) and [Eu(bda)2](-) (bda = 2,2'-bipyridine-6,6'-dicarboxylic acid) in aqueous solutions containing various amino acids was investigated. The europium(III) complexes exhibited bright-red luminescence assignable to the f-f transition of the Eu(III) ion when irradiated with UV light. Although the luminescence was not circularly polarized in the solid state or in aqueous solutions, in accordance with the achiral crystal structure, the complexes exhibited detectable induced CPL (iCPL) in aqueous solutions containing chiral amino acids. In the presence of L-pyrrolidonecarboxylic acid, both [Eu(pda)2](-) and [Eu(bda)2](-) showed similar iCPL intensity (glum ∼ 0.03 for the (5)D0 → (7)F1 transition at 1 mol·dm(-3) of the amino acid). On the other hand, in the presence of L-histidine or L-arginine, [Eu(pda)2](-) exhibited intense CPL (glum ∼ 0.08 for the (5)D0 → (7)F1 transition at 0.10 mol·dm(-3) of the amino acid), whereas quite weak CPL was observed for [Eu(bda)2](-) under the same conditions (glum < 0.01). On the basis of analysis of the iCPL intensities in the presence of 12 amino acids, [Eu(pda)2](-) was found to be a good chiral CPL probe with high sensitivity (about 10(-2) mol·dm(-3)) and high selectivity for L-histidine at pH 3 and for L-arginine at pH 7. The mechanism of iCPL was evaluated by analysis of the fine structures in the luminescence spectra and the amino acid concentration dependence of glum. For the [Eu(pda)2](-)-histidine/arginine systems, the europium(III) complexes possess coordination structures similar to that in the crystal with slight distortion to form a chiral structure due to specific interaction with two zwitterionic amino acids. This mechanism was in stark contrast to that of the europium(III) complex-pyrrolidonecarboxylic acid system in which one amino acid coordinates to the Eu(III) ion to yield an achiral coordination structure.

Binding of Eu(III) to 1,2-hydroxypyridinone-modified peptide nucleic acids

Substitution of a nucleobase pair with a pair of 1,2-hydroxypyridinone (1,2-HOPO) ligands in the center of a 10-base-pair peptide nucleic acid (PNA) duplex provides a strong binding site for Eu(III) as evidenced by UV thermal melting curves, UV titrations, and luminescence spectroscopy. Eu(III) excitation spectra and luminescence lifetime data are consistent with Eu(III) bound to both 1,2 HOPO ligands in a PNA-HOPO duplex as the major species present in solution.

Spectroscopic studies on the binding of holmium-1,10-phenanthroline complex with DNA

Fluorescence and absorption spectroscopy, circular dichroism (CD) as well as viscosity experiment have been used to characterize the DNA binding of [Ho(Phen)(2)Cl(3)]·H(2)O, where phen stand for 1,10-phanathroline. This complex exhibits the marked decrease in the emission intensity and some hypochromism in UV-Vis spectrum in the presence of DNA. For characterization of the binding mode between the Ho(III) complex and DNA various procedures such as: absorption and emission titration and EB quenching experiments, viscosity measurements, CD study, iodide quenching assay, salt effect and thermodynamical investigation are used. The intrinsic binding constant of [Ho(Phen)(2)Cl(3)]·H(2)O with DNA is calculated by UV-Vis and florescence spectroscopy. The value of binding constants in 296, 299 and 303 are 1.99 ± 0.07 × 10(4), 1.07 ± 0.09 × 10(4) and 0.84 ± 0.06 × 10(4), respectively. The thermodynamic studies show that the reaction is entropically driven. The above-mentioned physical measurements indicate that the Ho(III) complex binds to fish salmon DNA, presumably via groove binding mode.