Gadolinium Complex with Tris-Hydroxypyridinone as an Input for New Imaging Probes: Thermodynamic Stability, Molecular Modeling and Biodistribution

The development of gadolinium-based magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) contrast agents (CAs) is a highly challenging and demanding research field in metal-coordination medicinal chemistry. The recognized high capacity of hydroxypyridinone (HOPO)-based compounds to coordinate Gd (III) led us to evaluate the set of physic–chemical–biological properties of a new Gd (III) complex with a hexadentate tripodal ligand (H3L) containing three 3,4-HOPO chelating moieties attached to an anchoring cyclohexane backbone. In particular, the thermodynamic stability constants of the complex were evaluated by potentiometry, showing the formation of a highly stable (1:1) Gd-L complex (log βGdL = 26.59), with full coordination even in an acid-neutral pH under the experimental conditions used. Molecular simulations of the Gd (III) complex revealed a minimum energy structure with somewhat-distorted octahedral geometry, involving full metal hexa-coordination by the three bidentate moieties of the ligand arms, indicating that an extra water molecule should be coordinated to the metal ion, an important feature for the CAs (and the required enhancement of water proton relaxivity). In vivo biodistribution studies with the 67Ga complex, as a surrogate of the corresponding Gd complex, showed in vivo stability and rapid excretion from the animal body. Though deserving further investigation, these results may give an input on future perspectives towards new MRI diagnostic agents.