Hydration of Two Cisplatin Aqua-Derivatives Studied by Quantum Mechanics and Molecular Dynamics Simulations

The hydration of the cisplatin aqua-derivatives, cis-[PtCl(H2O)(NH3)2](+) (w-cisplatin) and cis-[Pt(H2O)2(NH3)2](2+) (w2-cisplatin), has been studied by means of classical molecular dynamics simulations. The new platinum complex-water interaction potential, w-cisplatin-W, has been built on the basis of the already obtained cisplatin-water interaction potential (cisplatin-W) [J. Chem. Theory Comput. 2013 9, 4562]. That potential has been then transferred to the w2-cisplatin-W potential. The w-cisplatin and w2-cisplatin atomic charges were specifically derived from their solute's wave functions. Bulk solvent effects on the complex-water interactions have been included by means of a continuum model. Classical MD simulations with 1 platinum complex and 1000 SPC/E water molecules have been carried out. Angle-solved radial distribution functions and spatial distribution functions have been used to provide detailed pictures of the local hydration structure around the ligands (water, chloride, and ammine) and the axial region. A novel definition of a multisite cavity has been employed to compute the hydration number of complexes in order to provide a consistent definition of their first-hydration shell. Interestingly, the hydration number decreases with the increase of the complex net charge from 27 for cisplatin to 23 and 18 for w-cisplatin and w2-cisplatin, respectively. In parallel to this hydration number behavior, the compactness of the hydration shell increases when going from the neutral complex, i.e. cisplatin, to the doubly charged complex, w2-cisplatin. Quantum mechanics estimation of the hydration energies for the platinum complexes allows the computation of the reaction energy for the first- and second-hydrolysis of cisplatin in water. The agreement with experimental data is satisfactory.