Novel technetium(III) mixed-ligand chelates for the design of lipophilic complexes stable in vivo
(2001)
The nature of the heteroatom X incorporated in the five-membered PXP-diphosphine bridging chain was found to play a primary unit role both in the overall stability and in the stereochemical arrangement of nitrido-containing [M(N)(PXP)]2+ metal fragments (M = Tc, Re). Thus, by mixing PXP ligands with labile [Re(N)Cl4]- and Tc(N)Cl2(PPh3)2 nitrido precursors in CH2Cl2/MeOH mixtures, a series of neutral M(N)Cl2(PXP) complexes (M = Tc, 1-5; M = Re, 8, 9) was collected. In the resulting distorted octahedrons, PXP adopted facial or meridional coordination, and combination with halide co-ligands produced three different stereochemical arrangements, that is, fac,cis, mer,cis, and mer,trans, depending primarily on the nature of the diphosphine heteroatom X. When X = NH, mer,cis-Tc(N)Cl2(PNP1), 1, was the only isomer formed. Alternatively, when a tertiary amine nitrogen (X = NR; R = CH3, CH2CH2OCH3) was introduced in the bridging chain, fac,cis-M(N)Cl2(PN(R)P) complexes (M = Tc, 2, 3; M = Re, 8f) were obtained. Isomerization into the mer,cis-Re(N)Cl2(PN(R)P), 8m, species was observed only in the case of rhenium when the tertiary amine group carried the less encumbering methyl substituent. fac,cis-Tc(N)Cl2(PSP), 4f, was isolated in the solid state when X = S, but a mixture of fac,cis-Tc(N)Cl2(PSP) and mer,trans-Tc(N)Cl2(PSP), 4m, isomers was found in equilibrium in the solution state. A similar equilibrium between fac,cis-M(N)Cl2(POP) (M = Tc, 5f; M = Re, 9f) and mer,trans-M(N)Cl2(POP) (M = Tc, 5m; M = Re, 9m) species was detected in POP-containing complexes. The molecular structure of all of these complexes was assessed by means of conventional physicochemical techniques including multinuclear NMR spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction analysis of representative mer,cis-Tc(N)Cl2(PN(H)P), 1, fac,cis-Tc(N)Cl2(PSP), 4f, and mer,cis-Re(N)Cl2(PN(Me)P), 8m, compounds.
Development of new radiopharmaceuticals based on rhenium-188 depends on finding appropriate ligands able to give complexes with high in vivo stability. Rhenium(III) mixed-ligand complexes with tetradentate/monodentate ('4 + 1') coordination of the general formula [Re(NS3)(PRR'R' ')] (NS3 = tris(2-mercaptoethyl)amine and derivatives thereof, PRR'R' ' = phosphorus(III) ligands) appear to be among the promising tools to achieve this goal. According to this approach, we synthesized and characterized a series of rhenium model complexes. In vitro stabilities of the corresponding rhenium-188 complexes were determined by incubating 2-3 MBq or alternatively 37 MBq of the complexes in phosphate buffer, human plasma, and rat plasma, respectively, at 22° C or 37° C, followed by checking the amount of 188ReO4- formed after 1 h, 24, and 48 h by thin-layer chromatography. The rate of perrhenate formation varied over a wide range, depending primarily on the nature of the phosphorus(III) ligand. Physicochemical parameters of the corresponding nonradioactive rhenium complexes were analyzed in detail to find out the factors influencing their different stability and furthermore to design new substitution-inert '4 + 1' complexes. Tolman's cone angle of phosphorus(III) ligands and the lipophilic character of the inner coordination sphere were found to be crucial factors to build up stable rhenium '4 + 1' complexes. Additional information useful to describe electronic and steric properties of these compounds were selected from electronic spectra (wavelength of the ReS charge-transfer band), cyclovoltammetric measurements (E° of the ReIII/ReIV couple), and NMR investigations (31P chemical shift of coordinated P(III) ligands).