Catalytic oxidations using cobalt(II) complexes - Advances in Catalytic Activation of Dioxygen by Metal Complexes - page 316

13. OXIDATIONS WITH COBALT PEPTIDE
COMPLEXES
Recently, there has been increasing interest in metallopeptides as nucleic
acid modification reagents 178 that can act as affinity cleavage appendages to
nucleic acid binding domains 179,180 . The development of site-selective DNA
strand scission agents may involve the substrate oxidation reactions of
metallo-Gly-Gly-His and its derivatives 181 . Photirradiated mixtures of Co(II)
and under ambient totally converted form I
DNA to form II 182 . An oxygenated Co(III)-peptide complex is presumably
formed upon photoirradiation, which is capable of inducing DNA strand
scission by OH radical generation via His-Co coordination in close
proximity to DNA.