[Ru(L)2dppz]2+ (L = 1,10-phenanthroline (phen) or 2,2'-bipyridyl (bpy) ; dppz = dipyrido[3,2-a:2',3'-c]phenazine) complexes are of great interest due to their interesting photophysical and photochemical behavior. Their environment-sensitive luminescence properties make them promising candidates as photoprobes for DNA topologies and mismatches. These complexes exhibit a very weak luminescence in aqueous solution, which is then restored in the presence of DNA, and magnified if DNA contains single base pair mismatch or an abasic site.[1-3] This effect, known as the 'light-switch effect', is ascribed to the intercalative binding of the dppz ligand between the base pairs of DNA, resulting in a decrease in the efficiency of the non-radiative relaxation pathways from the 3MLCT excited state of the complexes.[4-5] In this context, our work is focused on the design and synthesis of a series of new extended planar aromatic ligands based on a derivatized acridine core and the study of the properties of the resulting Ru(II) complexes. As the dppz ligand is responsible of the photophysical and photochemical properties of [Ru(L)2dppz]2+complexes, changing the intercalating ligand would allow to develop new systems able to probe different DNA topologies.[1] Friedman, A.E.; Chambron, J.-C.; Sauvage, J.-P.; Turro, N.J.; Barton, J.K. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1990 , 112, 4960-4962.[2] Lim, M.H.; Song, H.; Olmon, E.D.; Dervan, E.E.; Barton, J. K. Inorg. Chem. 2009 , 48, 5392-5397.[3] Olofsson, J.; �nfelt, B.; Lincoln, P. J. Phys. Chem. A 2004 , 108, 4391-4398.[4] Niyazi, H.; Hall, J.P.; O'Sullivan, K.; Winter, G.; Sorensen, T.; Kelly, J.M.; Cardin, C.J. Nature Chem. 2012 , 4, 621-629.[5] Andersson, J.; Fornander, L.H.; Abrahamsson, M.; Tuite, E.; Nordell, P.; Lincoln, P. Inorg. Chem. 2013  , 52, 1151-1159.

Design and photophysical studies of new Ru(II)-based DNA photoprobes

248th National Meeting (2014)

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