Fluorimetric study of interaction between europium coordination complexes and DNA

Lanthanide coordination complexes have found numerous applications in a number of areas, including laser techniques, fluorescent analysis, biomedical assays. Likewise, they exhibit antitumor properties. Eu(III) tris-β-diketonato complexes (EC) are newly synthesized compounds with high anticancer activity. Despite extensive studies, the detailed mechanism of their biological effects is far from being resolved. Examining the interactions between EC and biological molecules in model systems is essential for deeper understanding of the mechanisms behind their biological activity. In the present work we employed fluorescent probe acridine orange (AO) to investigate EC-DNA interaction. AO-DNA binding was followed by the marked fluorescence increase detected at 530 nm. EC addition suppressed this fluorescent changes. EC were found to differ in their ability to modify AO-DNA interactions. EC4 and EC6 have demonstrated the most pronounced effect on AO-DNA binding. AO-DNA complexation occurs predominantly via intercalation mode. EC are large planar structures, whose DNA intercalating ability was reported to increase with the planarity of ligands. It seems likely that AO and EC can compete for the binding sites on DNA molecule