Synthesis, characterisation and biological activity of three copper(II) complexes with a modified nitrogenous base: 5-formyluracil thiosemicarbazone

Three Cu(II) co-ordination compounds with a novel ligand, 5-formyluracil thiosemicarbazone (H(3)ut), have been synthesised and characterised by single-crystal X-ray diffraction and subsequently tested in vitro on human leukemic cells. The crystal structures revealed, in all three cases, a square pyramidal co-ordination geometry of the copper atom with the ligand lying on the basal plane and behaving as an SNO terdentate ligand, These three compounds have been tested on human leukemic cell line K562 and GEM. In these experiments the complexes have demonstrated to inhibit cell growth and one of them to induce apoptosis. In the paper we also report the spectrophotometric characterization of the free ligand. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.