Dynamic Intramolecular Cap for Preserving Metallodrug Integrity—A Case of Catalytic Fluoroquinolones

[Image: see text] A library of eight new fluoroquinolone–nuclease conjugates containing a guanidinoethyl or aminoethyl auxiliary pendant on the cyclen moiety was designed and synthesized to investigate their potential for overcoming the general issue of “metallodrug vulnerability” under physiological conditions. The Cu(II) and Co(III) complexes of the new designer compounds were synthesized, and their potential to operate a dynamic, intramolecular cap with DNase activity was explored. The lead Co(III)–cyclen–ciprofloxacin conjugate showed excellent in vitro hydrolytic DNase activity, which was retained in the presence of strong endogenous chelators and exhibited enhanced antibacterial activity relative to the metal-free ligand (in the absence of any adjuvants), thereby demonstrating a “proof of concept” in vitro and ex vivo, respectively, for the dynamic cap hypothesis. The lead conjugate nicked supercoiled plasmid DNA within the fluoroquinolone–gyrase–DNA ternary complex and thereby disabled the function of gyrase, a new mode of action not previously reported for any fluoroquinolone.