Nitroferroin

Binary and ternary water soluble copper(II) complexes - [Cu(nphen)2(H2O)](NO3)2·H2O (1), [Cu(phen)2(H2O)](NO3)2 (2), [Cu(nphen)(l-tyr)(H2O)]NO3·2H2O (3), [Cu(phen)(tyr)(H2O)] NO3·2H2O (4) - and diquarternary salts of nphen and phen (nphen=5-nitro-1,10-phenanthroline, phen=1,10-phenanthroline and tyr=l-tyrosine) have been synthesized and characterized by CHN analysis, (1)H NMR, (13)C NMR and IR spectroscopy, thermal analysis and single crystal X-ray diffraction techniques. The CT-DNA binding properties of these compounds have been investigated by thermal denaturation measurements, absorption and emission spectroscopy. The supercoiled pUC19 plasmid DNA cleavage activity of these compounds has been explored by agarose gel electrophoresis. The cytotoxicity of these compounds against MCF-7, Caco-2, A549 cancer cells and BEAS-2B healthy cells was also studied by using XTT method. The complexes 1-4 exhibit significant high cytotoxicity with low IC50 values in compared with cisplatin.

Clostridium difficile, a highly drug-resistant Gram-positive, spore-forming bacterium, remains a leading cause of hospital-acquired diarrhoea and antibiotic-associated colitis. Clinically, only a handful of antibiotics are used for treating C. difficile infection (CDI), suggesting a necessity for the development of new treatment options. Here we performed a high-throughput screen of 2000 drug-like compounds for inhibition of C. difficile. From this screen, one compound, 5-nitro-1,10-phenanthroline (5-NP), showed potent bactericidal effects in vitro. In addition, this compound displayed high potency towards other Clostridium spp. as well as Mycobacterium bovis but not towards other tested Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria. Furthermore, we show that this inhibition may proceed through a metal chelation-dependent mechanism. More importantly, preliminary evidence suggests moderate efficacy for this compound in treating CDI in a murine infection model.

Six gallium(III) complexes with N-donor ligands were synthesized to study the mechanism of Ga(III)-catalyzed olefin epoxidation. These include 2:1 ligand/metal complexes with the bidentate ligands ethylenediamine, 5-nitro-1,10-phenanthroline, and 5-amino-1,10-phenanthroline, as well as 1:1 ligand/metal complexes with the tetradentate N,N'-bis(2-pyridylmethyl)-1,2-ethanediamine, the potentially pentadentate N,N,N'-tris(2-pyridylmethyl)-1,2-ethanediamine, and the potentially hexadentate N,N,N',N'-tetrakis(2-pyridylmethyl)-1,2-ethanediamine. In solution, each of the three pyridylamine ligands appears to coordinate to the Ga(III) through four donor atoms. The six complexes were tested for their ability to catalyze the epoxidation of alkenes by peracetic acid. Although the complexes with relatively electron-poor phenanthroline derivatives display faster initial reactivity, the gallium(III) complexes with the polydentate pyridylamine ligands appear to be more robust, with less noticeable decreases in their catalytic activity over time.

The sluggish kinetics of the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) at the cathodes of fuel cells significantly hampers fuel cell performance. Therefore, the development of high-performance, non-precious-metal catalysts as alternatives to noble metal Pt-based ORR electrocatalysts is highly desirable for the large-scale commercialization of fuel cells. TiO2 -grafted copper complexes deposited on multiwalled carbon nanotubes (CNTs) form stable and efficient electrocatalysts for the ORR. The optimized catalyst composite CNTs@TiO2 -ZA-[Cu(phen${{^{{\rm NO}{_{2}}}}}$)(BTC)] shows surprisingly high selectivity for the 4 e(-) reduction of O2 to water (approximately 97 %) in alkaline solution with an onset potential of 0.988 V vs. RHE, and demonstrates superior stability and excellent tolerance for the methanol crossover effect in comparison to a commercial Pt/C catalyst. The copper complexes were grafted onto the surface of TiO2 through coordination of an imidazole-containing ligand, zoledronic acid (ZA), which binds to TiO2 through its bis-phosphoric acid anchoring group.