Thermodynamic Stability of Mn(II) Complexes with Aminocarboxylate Ligands Analyzed Using Structural Descriptors

[Abstract] We present a quantitative analysis of the thermodynamic stabilities of Mn(II) complexes, defined by the equilibrium constants (log KMnL values) and the values of pMn obtained as −log[Mn]free for total metal and ligand concentrations of 1 and 10 μM, respectively. We used structural descriptors to analyze the contributions to complex stability of different structural motifs in a quantitative way. The experimental log KMnL and pMn values can be predicted to a good accuracy by adding the contributions of the different motifs present in the ligand structure. This allowed for the identification of features that provide larger contributions to complex stability, which will be very helpful for the design of efficient chelators for Mn(II) complexation. This issue is particularly important to develop Mn(II) complexes for medical applications, for instance, as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) contrast agents. The analysis performed here also indicates that coordination number eight is more common for Mn(II) than is generally assumed, with the highest log KMnL values generally observed for hepta- and octadentate ligands. The X-ray crystal structure of [Mn2(DOTA)(H2O)2], in which eight-coordinate [Mn(DOTA)]2– units are bridged by six-coordinate exocyclic Mn(II) ions, is also reported. C.P.-I. and D.E.-G. (PID2019-104626GB-I00) and A.R.-R. (Grant PID2019-108352RJ-I00) thank Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación and Xunta de Galicia (Grant ED431B 2020/52) for generous financial support. R.U.-V. thanks the Xunta de Galicia (Grant ED481A-2018/314) for funding her Ph.D. contract. L.V is indebted to CACTI (Universidade de Vigo) for X-Ray measurements. P.C. acknowledges funding from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (R01DK121789) Xunta de Galicia; ED431B 2020/52 Xunta de Galicia; ED481A-2018/314 Estados Unidos de América. National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases; R01DK121789