Cationic meso(4-N-methylpyridyl)-based metallocorroles, μ-oxo iron corrole dimer (1b) and manganese corrole monomer (2b), were synthesized and characterized. The interactions of these two metal corrole complexes with CT-DNA were studied by UVvisible, fluorescence and circular dichroism spectroscopic methods, as well as by viscosity measurements. The results revealed that 1b interacts with CT-DNA in a difunctional binding mode, i.e. non-classical intercalation and outside groove binding with H-aggregation, while 2b can interact with CT-DNA via an outside groove binding mode only. The binding constants K b of 1b and 2b were 4.71 × 10 5 M À1 and 2.17 × 10 5 M À1 , respectively, indicating that 1b can bind more tightly to CT-DNA than 2b. Furthermore, both complexes may cleave the supercoiled plasmid DNA efficiently in the presence of hydrogen peroxide or tert-butyl hydroperoxide (TBHP), albeit 1b exhibited a little higher efficiency. The inhibitor tests suggested that singlet oxygen and high-valent (oxo)iron(VI) corrole or (oxo)manganese(V) corrole might be the active intermediates responsible for the oxidative DNA scission. Figure 2. UV-visible spectral changes of 1b in 5 mM Tris-HCl/50 mM NaCl buffer (pH 5), t = 0 (dashed line), 5, 10, 15 and 30 min.Figure 10. Absorption spectra of (a) 1b (20 μM) and (b) 2b (20 μM) in 50 mM Tris-HCl/18 mM NaCl buffer (pH 7.2) in the presence of TBHP or H 2 O 2 at different times. (a) [H 2 O 2 ] = [TBHP] = 10 μM; (b) [H 2 O 2 ] = [TBHP] = 20 mM.