Cyclic Naphthalene Diimide with a Ferrocene Moiety as a Redox-Active Tetraplex-DNA Ligand

Cyclic naphthalene diimides (cNDIs), with a ferrocene moiety (cFNDs) and different linker lengths between the ferrocene and cNDI moieties, were designed and synthesized as redox-active, tetraplex-DNA ligands. Intramolecular stacking was observed between ferrocene and the NDI planes, which could affect the binding properties for G-quadruplexes. Interestingly, the circular dichroism spectrum of one of these compounds clearly shows new Cotton effects around 320–380 and 240 nm, which can be considered a direct evidence of intramolecular stacking of ferrocene and the NDI. Regarding recognition of hybrid G-quadruplexes, the less rigid structures (longer linkers) show higher binding affinity (10⁶ m ⁻¹ order of magnitude). All new compounds show higher selectivity for G4 during electrochemical detection than noncyclic FND derivatives, which further identifies the redox-active potentiality of the cFNDs. Two of the three compounds tested even show preferential inhibition of cell growth in cancer cells over normal cells in a low concentration range, highlighting the potential for bioapplications of these cFNDs.