Metal complexes of cyclen have been widely used to hydrolytically cleave biomolecules (proteins, RNA, DNA) and model substrates. Such cleavage reactions, however, usually require a high pH, long incubation times and enhanced temperatures. The present study combines two straightforward approaches to increase the proteolytic cleavage activity of cyclen complexes: alkylation in order to improve interactions with hydrophobic domains of proteins as well as single and double heteroatom exchange in order to increase the Lewis acidity of the metal center, in this case Cu(II). This allows reactions with BSA and Mb as model proteins to be carried out also at nearphysiological conditions. A Cu(II) complex with an alkylated oxacyclen ligand was identified as the most efficient species. Furthermore, a dioxacyclen derivative was investigated in proteolytic reactions for the first time.
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