Mononuclear Cu(II)-phenolate bioinspired complex is catalytically promiscuous: phosphodiester and peptide amide bond cleavage.

In this work, the cleavage activity of the metal complex [Cu(C(21)H(21)N(3)O(2))(OH(2))(2)](2+) is demonstrated to occur toward double-stranded DNA, in addition to its previously described amide bond cleavage activity, thus suggesting catalytic promiscuity for this complex.