Copper-promoted reductive homocoupling of quasi-aromatic iron(ii) clathrochelates: boosting the inhibitory activity in a transcription assayElectronic supplementary information (ESI) available: Synthetic procedures, T7 RNAP assays and computational chemistry protocols. CCDC 889585-889587. For ESI and crystallographic data in CIF or other electronic format see DOI: 10.1039/c3cc47018k

A copper-promoted reductive homocoupling reaction, for the first time used for a metal complex, allowed obtaining a new kind of complexes with the encapsulated metal ions, C-C conjugated bis-clathrochelates. These compounds demonstrate extremely high transcription inhibition activity in the T7 RNA polymerase system with values of IC 50 reaching as low as the submicromolar range, which places them among the most potent metal-based transcription inhibitors. A copper-promoted reductive homocoupling reaction, for the first time used for a metal complex, allowed obtaining a new kind of complexes with the encapsulated metal ions, C-C conjugated bis-clathrochelates.