Multispectral studies of DNA binding, antioxidant and cytotoxic activities of a new pyranochromene derivative

•Binding ability of a new pyranochromene derivative (3-HC) with DNA has been evaluated.•Cytotoxic activity of 3-HC was analyzed against K562 cell line.•The compound possesses significant cytotoxic and radical scavenging properties.

The binding properties of a new pyranochromene derivative, 2-amino-4-(3-hydroxyphenyl)-5-oxo-4H, 5H-pyrano-[3, 2-c] chromene-3-carbonitrile (3-HC) with calf thymus DNA (ctDNA) have been investigated by UV–vis absorption, circular dichroism, fluorescence spectroscopy and viscosity measurement. These results indicated that 3-HC can interact with DNA through non-intercalative mode and the intrinsic binding constant (Kb) for 3-HC with DNA was estimated to be 3.6 × 103 M−1. The antioxidant activity experiments show that 3-HC also exhibit good antioxidant activity in DPPH free radical scavenging and ferric reducing ability methods. Moreover, 3-HC exhibited cytotoxic activity against K562, human chronic myelogenous leukemia cells, with IC50 value of 146 μM and the cells responded to the treatment with mostly through apoptosis.

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