Coordination
compounds of the lanthanide ions (Ln3+)
have important applications in medicine due to their photophysical,
magnetic, and nuclear properties. To effectively use the Ln3+ ions for these applications, chelators that stably bind them in
vivo are required to prevent toxic side effects that arise from localization
of these ions in off-target tissue. In this study, two new picolinate-containing
chelators, a heptadentate ligand OxyMepa and a nonadentate ligand
Oxyaapa, were prepared, and their coordination chemistries with Ln3+ ions were thoroughly investigated to evaluate their suitability
for use in medicine. Protonation constants of these chelators and
stability constants for their Ln3+ complexes were evaluated.
Both ligands exhibit a thermodynamic preference for small Ln3+ ions. The log K
LuL = 12.21 and 21.49
for OxyMepa and Oxyaapa, respectively, indicating that the nonadentate
Oxyaapa forms complexes of significantly higher stability than the
heptadentate OxyMepa. X-ray crystal structures of the Lu3+ complexes were obtained, revealing that Oxyaapa saturates the coordination
sphere of Lu3+, whereas OxyMepa leaves an additional open
coordination site for a bound water ligand. Solution structural studies
carried out with NMR spectroscopy revealed the presence of two possible
conformations for these ligands upon Ln3+ binding. Density
functional theory (DFT) calculations were applied to probe the geometries
and energies of these conformations. Energy differences obtained by
DFT are small but consistent with experimental data. The photophysical
properties of the Eu3+ and Tb3+ complexes were
characterized, revealing modest photoluminescent quantum yields of
<2%. Luminescence lifetime measurements were carried out in H2O and D2O, showing that the Eu3+ and
Tb3+ complexes of OxyMepa have two inner-sphere water ligands,
whereas the Eu3+ and Tb3+ complexes of Oxyaapa
have zero. Lastly, variable-temperature 17O NMR spectroscopy
was performed for the Gd-OxyMepa complex to determine its water exchange
rate constant of k
ex
298 = (2.8 ± 0.1) × 106 s–1. Collectively, this comprehensive characterization
of these Ln3+ chelators provides valuable insight for their
potential use in medicine and garners additional understanding of
ligand design strategies.