Author: Fritz E. Kühn

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AUTHOR

Fritz E. Kühn

On the Mechanism of Gold/NHC Compounds Binding to DNA G-Quadruplexes: Combined Metadynamics and Biophysical Methods

The binding modes and free-energy landscape of two AuI /N-heterocyclic carbene complexes interacting with G-quadruplexes, namely a human telomeric (hTelo) and a promoter sequence (C-KIT1), are studied here for the first time by metadynamics. The theoretical results are validated by FRET DNA melting assays and provide an accurate estimate of the absolute gold complex/DNA binding free energy. This advanced in silico approach is valuable to achieve rational drug design of selective G4 binders.

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Characterization of Hydrophilic Gold(I) N-Heterocyclic Carbene (NHC) Complexes as Potent TrxR Inhibitors Using Biochemical and Mass Spectrometric Approaches

We report here on the synthesis of a series of mono-and dinuclear gold(I) complexes exhibiting sulfonated bis(NHC) ligands and novel hydroxylated mono(NHC) Au(I) compounds, which were also examined for their 'biological activities. Initial cell viability assays show strong antiproliferative activities of the hydroxylated mono(NHC) gold compounds (8 > 9 > 10) against 2008 human ovarian cancer cells even after 1 h incubation. In order to gain insight into the mechanism of biological action of the gold compounds, their effect on the pivotal cellular target seleno-enzyme thioredoxin reductase (TrxR), involved in the maintenance of intracellular redox balance, was investigated in depth. Th…

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Exploring the Reactivity and Biological Effects of Heteroleptic N-Heterocyclic Carbene Gold(I)- Alkynyl Complexes

With the aim to explore the effects of different organometallic ligands on the reactivity and biological properties of a series of twelve heteroleptic AuI complexes, of general formula [Au(NHC)(alkynyl)] (NHC = benzimidazolylidene or 1,3-dihydroimidazolylidene) were synthesized and characterized by 1H and 13C NMR and elemental analysis, and in some cases also by X-ray diffraction. The compounds were all stable in H2O/DMSO as established by NMR spectroscopy, while they could react with model thiols (EtSH) in the presence of water to undergo ligand-substitution reactions. 1H NMR experiments showed that dissociation of the more labile alkynyl ligand was possible for all compounds, while in the…

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