236 CHINESE OPTICS LETTERS / Vol. 8, No. 2 / February 10, 2010
Study on interaction between Dy(III)(NR)
3
complex
and herring sperm DNA by spectroscopy
Yan Zhang (ÜÜÜ ýýý)
1
, Xingming Wang (,,,²²²)
1∗
, Dan Fei (¤¤¤ ûûû)
1
, Na Zhao (ëëë AAA)
1
,
Tingting Zhao (ëëëxxxxxx)
1
, Haifeng Zhu (ÁÁÁ°°°¸¸¸)
1
, and Lisheng Ding (¶¶¶ááá))))
2
1
Department of Chemistry, Material Science and Engineering College,
Southwest University of Science and Technology, Mianyang 621010, China
2
Chengdu Institute of Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chengdu 610041, China
∗
E-mail: xmwang xkd@yahoo.com.cn
Received March 23, 2009
The action mode between Dy(III)(NR)
3
and herring sperm DNA is studied by ultraviolet-visible (UV-
vis) and fluorescence sp ectra as well as electrochemistry. Double-reciprocal method studies show that
the binding stoichiometry between Dy(III)(NR)
3
and DNA is 1 : 1, the binding constants at different
temp eratures are 1.15 × 10
5
L/mol at 25
◦
C and 2.09 × 10
5
L/mol at 35
◦
C, and the corresponding
thermo dynamic parameters are ∆
r
H
Θ
m
= 2.48 × 10
4
J/mol, ∆
r
G
Θ
m
= −2.34 × 10
4
J/mol, ∆
r
S
Θ
m
= 161.7
J/(mol · K), ∆
r
S
Θ
m
is the driving force in this reaction. Combined with Scatchard method and melting
metho d, the results suggest that the interaction mode between Dy(III)(NR)
3
and herring sperm DNA is
intercalation fashion and groove fashion.
OCIS co des: 300.6390, 300.6280, 300.6550.
doi: 10.3788/COL20100802.0236.
DNA attracted much interest due to its crucial role in
gene expression, gene transcription, mutagenesis, car-
cinogenesis, and cell death, etc.
[1]
In recent years, stud-
ies on the interaction of small molecules with DNA have
gained prominence because of their relevance in the de-
velopment of new reagents for medicine. On one hand,
we can select new nucleic acid fluorescence probe during
the study. On the other hand, some anticancer drugs
take cancer DNA as head target by ways of breaking its
structure and interfering its gene regulation and expres-
sion, showing anticancer activity
[2−5]
.
The noncovalent binding of some ligands may be fol-
lowed by chemical reaction or ligand-induced cleavage of
the nucleic acid. It is generally accepted that there are
three binding modes of small molecules to the DNA dou-
ble helix: intercalation binding, groove binding, and elec-
trostatic binding
[6−8]
. Intercalation, a strongly favorable
binding mode that can influence the function of DNA
by rupturing DNA directly or restraining its replication
and transcription, involves the π-stacking of a ligand be-
tween adjacent base pairs of DNA. This π-stacking in-
teraction requires the intercalating ligand to be a flat,
extended aromatic compound, which is annulated with
heterocyclic rings, e.g., pyridine and pyrazine
[9]
. Neu-
tral red (NR), a planar phenazine dye, is sensitive to
the size, shape, chirality, and hydrophobic characteris-
tics of the complex. Compared with transition metals,
rare metals are more effecive to cleave the phosphate di-
ester bond
[10−12]
. As a result, the study of their metal
complex Dy(III)(NR)
3
provides useful insights into drug
design and we can understand the binding mechanism of
these drugs.
Spectrophotometric measurements are known as pow-
erful tools for investigating the interaction between small
molecules and DNA. Although DNA has a natural flu-
orescence, it is too weak to be used directly to mea-
sure DNA. Compared with a common fluorimetric probe,
ethidium bromide (EB) and acridine orange (AO) offer
lower toxicity, higher stability, and convenience of use.
In this letter, AO is selected as the probe
[13,14]
. The
interaction between Dy(III)(NR)
3
complex and herring
sperm DNA is confirmed by spectrophotometer and elec-
trochemistry measurements. A series of thermo dynamic
parameters and binding constants are also obtained.
The complex was prepared by concentrating stoichio-
metric dysprosium chloride and NR in absolute ethanol,
recirculated on a water bath at 80
◦
C for 14 h. The
sample was dried in an oven for 5 h and remaining
the volume of about 10 mL. After standing for several
days, brownish crystals of Dy(III)(NR)
3
Cl
3
· H
2
O
[11]
were
yielded. Infrared (IR) spectra data display clearly the
symmetrical stretching band of NH at 3460 cm
−1
, the
NH bending band at 1625 cm
−1
, the stretching band
of CH in benzene ring at 860 cm
−1
, and the stretching
band of CN at 1170 and 1080 cm
−1
. Elemental analysis
shows the composition of C43.33 H4.71 N14.25 Dy14.38
in percentages
[15,16]
.
The herring sperm DNA (purchased from Sigma Bio-
logical Co.) was used without further purification. The
DNA was dissolved in doubly distilled deionized water
with 50-mmol/L NaCl and dialyzed for 48 h against
a buffer solution at 4
◦
C. The purity of the DNA
was checked by monitoring the ratio of the 260-nm ab-
sorbance to 280-nm absorbance (A
260
/A
280
). The ratio
of 1.83 indicated that DNA was fully free of protein
[17]
.
The DNA concentrations per nucleotide were determined
from the light absorbance at 260 nm by using the molar
extinction coefficient of 6600 L/(mol·cm). The solution
of DNA was stored at 4
◦
C for a short time and then
used.
All of the samples were dissolved in tris-HCl buffer
(The concentration of tris was 0.1 mol/L by adding HCl
solution with the concentration of 0.1 mol/L. Acidometer
was used to examine the pH value of the buffer until it
1671-7694/2010/020236-05
c
° 2010 Chinese Optics Letters