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A representative set of vanadium(IV and V) compounds in varying coordination environments has been tested in the concentration range 1 to 10(-6) mM, using transformed mice fibroblasts (cell line SV 3T3), with respect to their short-term cell toxicity (up to 36 hours) and their ability to stimulate glucose uptake by cells. These insulin-mimetic tests have also been carried out with non-transformed human fibroblasts (cell line F26). The compounds under investigation comprise established insulin-mimetic species such as vanadate ([H(2)VO(4)](-)), [VO(acetylacetonate)(2)], [VO(2)(dipicolinate)](-) and [VO(maltolate)(2)], and new systems and coordination compounds containing OO, ON, OS, NS and ONS donor atom sets. A vitality test assay, measuring the reduction equivalents released in the mitochondrial respiratory chain by intracellular glucose degradation, is introduced and the results are counter-checked with (3)H-labelled glucose. Most compounds are toxic at the 1 mM concentration level, and most compounds are essentially non-toxic and about as effective as or more potent than insulin at concentrations of 0.01 mM and below. V(V) compounds tend to be less toxic than V(IV)compounds, and complexes containing thio functional ligands are somewhat more toxic than others. Generally, ON ligation is superior in insulin-mimetic efficacy to OO or O/ NS coordination, irrespective of the vanadium oxidation state. There is, however, no striking correlation between the nature of the ligand systems and the insulin-mimetic potency in these cell culture tests, encompassing 41 vanadium compounds, the results on 22 of which are reported in detail here. The syntheses and characteristics of various new compounds are provided together with selected speciation results. The crystal and molecular structures of [[VO(naph-tris)](2)] [where naph-tris is the Schiff base formed between o-hydroxynaphthaldehyde and tris(hydroxymethyl)amine] are reported. Electronic supplementary material to this paper can be obtained by using the Springer Link server located at http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00775-001-0311-5.

Copper(II) complexes of the neurotoxic peptide fragments of human and chicken prion proteins were studied by potentiometric, UV-vis, CD, and EPR spectroscopic and ESI-MS methods. The peptides included the terminally blocked native and scrambled sequences of HuPrP106-126 (HuPrPAc106-126NH2 and ScrHuPrPAc106-126NH2) and also the nona- and tetrapeptide fragments of both the human and chicken prion proteins (HuPrPAc106-114NH2, ChPrPAc119-127NH2, HuPrPAc109-112NH2, and ChPrPAc122-125NH2). The histidyl imidazole-N donor atoms were found to be the major copper(II) binding sites of all peptides; 3N and 4N complexes containing additional 2 and 3 deprotonated amide-N donors, respectively, are the major species in the physiological pH range. The complex formation processes for nona- and tetrapeptides are very similar, supporting the fact that successive deprotonation and metal ion coordination of amide functions go toward the N-termini in the form of joined six- and five-membered chelates. As a consequence, the peptide sequences investigated here, related to the neurotoxic region of the human PrP106-126 sequence, show a higher metal-binding affinity than the octarepeat fragments. In the case of the HuPrP peptide sequences, a weak pH-dependent binding of the Met109 residue was also detected in the 3N-coordinated complexes.

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The possible biotransformations in the blood serum of four representative insulin-enhancing vanadium compounds, [VO(6-mepic)(2)], cis-[VO(pic)(2)(H(2)O)], [VO(acac)(2)], and [VO(dhp)(2)], where 6-mepic, pic, acac, and dhp indicate the deprotonated forms of 6-methylpicolinic and picolinic acids, acetylacetone, and 1,2-dimethyl-3-hydroxy-4(1H)-pyridinone, were examined. In particular, the behavior of the quinary systems formed by the insulin-enhancing species, human serum apo-transferrin (hTf), human serum albumin (HSA), and lactate (lact) or citrate (citr) at physiological pH and conditions was studied. The results indicate that, besides the case in which the ligand is very weak like 6-mepic, the carrier can interact in some form with VO(2+) ion until its intake into the cell. In fact with stronger ligands like pic, acac, and dhp, VO(2+) is transported not only by transferrin but also as [VO(carrier)(2)] and as mixed species VO(2+)-hTF-carrier. There are two ways in which the undissociated form of a bis-chelated complex can interact with transferrin, one "specific" when the carrier possesses a carboxylate group and behaves like a synergistic anion, and another "non-specific" when an imidazole nitrogen of a histidine residue from hTf replaces an equatorially coordinated water molecule giving rise to a ternary species with cis-octahedral geometry and cis-VO(carrier)(2)(hTf) stoichiometry. It is found that also albumin can participate in the transport of an insulin-enhancing compound forming a mixed species cis-VO(carrier)(2)(HSA), when the carrier stabilizes in aqueous solution the cis-octahedral form, or the dinuclear compound (VO)(2)(d)HSA, when the carrier forms unstable complexes. These insights were confirmed through density functional theory (DFT) calculations.

A series of V(IV)O bis chelated complexes of alpha-hydroxycarboxylic acids with a 2(COO(-), O(-)) coordination set was analyzed by electronic absorption and EPR spectroscopy in aqueous solution. All the complexes exhibit a square-pyramidal geometry distorted toward trigonal bipyramid. The influence of the distortion of the geometry, as deduced from the steric hindrance produced by the substituents at the alpha-carbon atom of the ligands, on the spectroscopic parameters has been studied. The observed trends were related to the electronic structure of the metal ion in the distorted geometry.