Synthesis, crystal structure of a novel tetranuclear Cu (Ⅱ) complex and its application in GSH-triggered generation of reactive oxygen species for chemodynamic therapy

A novel tetranuclear copper complex (TCC) has been successfully synthesized and characterized using high resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and X-ray single crystal diffraction technique. TCC was capable of triggering by Glutathione (GSH) to produce Cu (Ⅰ), then the resulted Cu (Ⅰ) further converted the overexpression of endogenous H2O2 into •OH, a highly cytotoxic reactive oxygen species (ROS), thereby killing the cancer cells. TCC showed high cytotoxicity to 4T1, MCF7, HepG2 cancer cells. Interestingly, the cytotoxicity of TCC to non-cancerous cells is much lower than that of cancer cells. Cell cycle experiments demonstrated that TCC was capable of arresting the cancer cell cycle in the G2/M phase. The apoptosis experiments shown that TCC could induce apoptosis rather than necrosis.