Different approaches to the study of chelating agents for iron and aluminium overload pathologies

Our objective is to illustrate the activity of the groups operating in Italy involved in identification and study of new chelating agents, mainly intended for treatment of human pathology correlated with metal overload. The objective of "chelation therapy" is removal of toxic metal ions from the human body or attenuation of their toxicity by transforming them into less toxic compounds or by dislocating them from the site at which they exert a toxic action. Because most of this research activity is related to chelating agents for iron and aluminium, diseases related to these two metal ions are briefly treated. Iron overload is the most common metal toxicity disease worldwide. The toxicity of aluminium in dialysis patients was a serious problem for haemodialysis units in the seventies and eighties of the last century. In particular, this review focuses on research performed by the group at Cagliari and Ferrara, and by that at Padova. The former is studying, above all, bisphosphonate and kojic acid derivatives, and the latter is investigating 3,4-hydroxypyridinecarboxylic acids with differently substituted pyridinic rings.

Theoretical studies on the structure and protonation of Cu(II) complexes of a series of tripodal aliphatic tetraamines: Good correlations with the experimental data

DFT(B3LYP) studies on first protonation step of a series of Cu(II) complexes of some tripodal tetraamines with general formula N[(CH(2))(n)NH(2)][(CH(2))(m)NH(2)][(CH(2))(p)NH(2)] (n = m = p = 2, tren; n = 3, m = p = 2, pee; n = m = 3, p = 2, ppe; n = m = 3, tpt; n = 2, m = 3, p = 4, epb; and n = m = 3, p = 4; ppb) are reported. First, the gas-phase proton macroaffinity of all latter complexes was calculated with considering following simple reaction: [Cu(L)](2+)(g) + H(+)(g) --> [Cu(HL)](3+)(g). The results showed that there is a good correlation between the calculated proton macroaffinities of all complexes with their stability constants in solution. Then, we tried to determine the possible reliable structures for microspecies involved in protonation process of above complexes. The results showed that, similar to the solid state, the [Cu(L)(H(2)O)](2+) and [Cu(HL)(H(2)O)(2)](3+) are most stable species for latter complexes and their protonated form, respectively, at gas phase. We found that there are acceptable correlations between the formation constants of above complexes with both the -Delta E and -Delta G of following reaction: [Cu(L)(H(2)O)](2+)(g) + H(+)(g) + H(2)O(g) --> [Cu(HL)(H(2)O)(2)](3+)(g). The -Delta E of the latter reaction can be defined as a theoretically solvent-proton macroaffinity of reactant complexes because they have gained one proton and one molecule of the solvent. The unknown formation constant of [Cu(epb)](2+) complex was also predicted from the observed correlations. In addition, the first proton affinity of all complexes was studied in solution using DPCM and CPCM methods. It was shown that there is an acceptable correlation between the solvent-proton affinities of [Cu(L)(H(2)O)](2+) complexes with formation constants of [Cu(HL)(H(2)O)(2)](3+) complexes in solution.