Low-energy conformers of pamidronate and their intramolecular hydrogen bonds: a DFT and QTAIM study

Extensive DFT and ab initio calculations were performed to characterize the conformational space of pamidronate, a typical pharmaceutical for bone diseases. Mono-, di- and tri-protic states of molecule, relevant for physiological pH range, were investigated for both canonical and zwitterionic tautomers. Semiempirical PM6 method were used for prescreening of the single bond rotamers followed by geometry optimizations at the B3LYP/6-31++G(d,p) and B3LYP/6-311++G(d,p) levels. For numerous identified low energy conformers the final electronic energies were determined at the MP2/6-311++G(2df,2p) level and corrected for thermal effects at B3LYP level. Solvation effects were also considered via the COSMO and C-PCM implicit models. Reasonable agreement was found between bond lengths and angle values in comparison with X-ray crystal structures. Relative equilibrium populations of different conformers were determined from molecular partition functions and the role of electronic, vibrational and rotational degrees of freedom on the stability of conformers were analyzed. For no level of theory is a zwitterionic structure stable in the gas-phase while solvation makes them available depending on the protonation state. Geometrically identified intramolecular hydrogen bonds were analyzed by QTAIM approach. All conformers exhibit strong inter-phosphonate hydrogen bonds and in most of them the alkyl-amine side chain is folded on the P-C-P backbone for further hydrogen bond formation.