The main goal of this PhD thesis concerns the development of artificial metallonucleases based on copper(II)-1,2,4-triazole compounds. In order to do so, we have obtained metal compounds of different nuclearities by reaction of a new family of 1,2,4-triazole ligands with copper(II) salts. The ligands own the characteristic triazole properties upon coordinating to metals and also integrate DNA binding units (aromatic moieties) with the aim of increasing the affinity of the corresponding metal complexes to double strand DNA. We have also chosen the copper(II) ion due to its intrinsic redox and coordination properties. Here we present our conclusions in relation with their structure/activity and also regarding the activating agent employed in the cleaving process (i.e. chemicals or other type). Furthermore, the triazole ring offers the versatility to bridge several metal centers and obtain unique polinuclear compounds. These compounds can show higher oxidative nuclease activity than their respective mononuclears due to the possible synergy between metallic centres. On the other hand, these compounds also present great interest due to their singular structural features and magnetic properties. This PhD thesis is divided in five sections: a general introduction and four different chapters. The general introduction includes the main concepts that will be tackled in this manuscript and the other four chapters contain the results obtained along this PhD period. The first chapter contains the synthesis and characterization of the triazole ligands; the other three chapters are divided according to the nature of the activation mechanism used to promote DNA scission: (chapter II) oxidative induced by chemical agents; (chapter III) oxidative induced by nanoparticles and, (chapter IV) hydrolytic.