Selective cytotoxicity of diazenecarboxamides towards human leukemic cell lines

Nitric Oxide Catalysis of Diazene E/Z Isomerization

Nitric oxide is an efficient catalyst for the cis-trans (E/Z) isomerization of diazenes. We compare the effect of room temperature solutions bearing low concentrations of nitric oxide, nitrogen dioxide, or oxygen on the rate of cis-trans isomerization, CTI, of the alkene bond in stilbene and on the azo double bond in azobenzene, as well as in four azo derivatives as measured by UV-vis spectroscopy. These rate enhancements can be as large as 3 orders of magnitude for azobenzene in solution. A mechanism is proposed where catalysis is promoted by the interaction of the nitric oxide with the diazene nitrogen lone pairs. Density functional theory, B3LYP/6-311++g** suggests that the binding of NO to the diazene should be weak and reversible but that its NO adduct has an E/Z isomerization barrier of 7.5 kcal/mol.

Concise and diversity-oriented synthesis of ligand arm-functionalized azoamides

Azoamides, previously established as bioactive intracellular GSH-depleting agents, were decorated with a terminal alkyne moiety to 4 and then were transformed, by copper(I)-catalyzed azide-alkyne cycloaddition (CuAAC), into different ligand-arm functionalized azoamides 6. Azides 5 having ligand-arms amenable for binding to platinum(II) were selected for this study. Because, for the fragile azoamides 4, the typically employed reaction conditions for CuAAC failed, several alternative solvents and copper catalysts were tested. Excellent results were obtained with copper(II) sulfate pentahydrate/metallic copper and especially with heterogeneous catalysts, such as copper-in-charcoal, cupric oxide, and cuprous oxide. The heterogeneous catalysts were employed to obtain the desired products in almost quantitative yields by a simple three-step "stir-filter-evaporate" protocol with no or negligible contamination with copper impurities. This is of particular importance because compounds 6 have been designed for coordination.