Novel luminescent cyclometaiated and terpyridine gold(III) complexes and DNA binding studies

Two gold complexes, [AuIII{4-MeOPh-(Phbipy)}Cl]·CF3SO31 and [AuIII(4-MeOPh-terpy)Cl]·(ClO4)22[4-MeOPh-(Phbipy)= 4′-(4-methoxyphenyl)-6′-phenyl-2,2′-bipyridine, 4-MeOPh-terpy = 4′-(4-methoxyphenyl)-2, 2′,6′, 2″-terpyridine] are prepared, and their interactions with calf-thymus DNA, poly(dG-dC)2and poly(dA-dT)2, investigated by spectroscopic means; in the reaction with ct DNA, 1 has a higher binding constant than 2, but the latter has a higher degree of AT specificity.