{
  "abstract": "The increasing global incidence of cancer, emerging viral infections, and antimicrobial resistance highlights the urgent need for innovative therapeutics with novel mechanisms of action. Nucleic acids, central to genetic information processing, are promising targets for therapeutic intervention through selective cleavage. Inspired by the biological activity of DNases and RNases, peptide-based metallonucleases—particularly those containing histidine—have emerged as versatile agents with tunable activity and potential applications in treating genetic diseases, including cancer. By analyzing a set of six copper(II) complexes with different histidine-containing tripeptides, this work investigates how peptide sequence influences several factors determining DNA-cleavage efficiency, such as speciation and conditional affinity at physiological pH, coordination mode, DNA binding, and ROS production. These findings offer a new framework for designing peptide-based copper nucleases and possibly identify a non-ATCUN sequence as a promising lead structure.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [
    "Departament de Química Inorgànica i Orgànica, Facultat de Química, Universitat de Barcelona, Martí i Franquès, 1-11, Barcelona, Spain, 08028",
    "Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (IN2UB",
    "Universitat de Barcelona",
    "Aix Marseille Univ, CNRS, Centrale Med, iSm2",
    "Institute of Biomedicine of the University of Barcelona (IBUB, Avda. Diagonal, 643, Edifici Prevosti, Barcelona, Spain, 08028",
    "Passeig Lluís Companys"
  ],
  "article_type": null,
  "arxiv": null,
  "author_total": 3,
  "authors": [
    {
      "affs": [
        0,
        1,
        2
      ],
      "name": "Ana B. Caballero"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        3
      ],
      "name": "Olga Iranzo"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0,
        4,
        5
      ],
      "name": "Patrick Gamez"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/9xyzm4q6sxe34.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.26434/chemrxiv.15009974/v1",
  "fulltext_url": null,
  "id": "9xyzm4q6sxe34",
  "issns": [],
  "landing_url": "https://chemrxiv.org/doi/full/10.26434/chemrxiv.15009974/v1",
  "language": null,
  "licence": "CC-BY-NC-ND",
  "licence_label": "CC BY-NC-ND",
  "licence_source": "journal",
  "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": null,
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "openalex",
      "2730|Metal complexes synthesis and properties"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W7220660446",
  "pdf_url": "https://chemrxiv.org/doi/pdf/10.26434/chemrxiv.15009974/v1",
  "pmcid": null,
  "pmid": null,
  "published": "2026-10-06",
  "publisher": "American Chemical Society (ACS)",
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/9xyzm4q6sxe34.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:17:22Z",
      "native_id": "10.26434/chemrxiv.15009974",
      "source": "chemrxiv",
      "url": "https://chemrxiv.org/doi/full/10.26434/chemrxiv.15009974/v1"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "medicine",
      "origin": "openalex:2730|Metal complexes synthesis and properties",
      "subfield": "oncology"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Decoding the Sequence Determinants of DNA Cleavage in Histidine-Containing Copper(II) Metallopeptides",
  "title_text": "Decoding the Sequence Determinants of DNA Cleavage in Histidine-Containing Copper(II) Metallopeptides",
  "type": "preprint",
  "updated_at": "2026-10-30T12:17:22Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/9xyzm4q6sxe34",
  "venue": "ChemRxiv",
  "versions": []
}