Coupling CP-MD Simulations and X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy: Exploring the Structure of Oxaliplatin in Aqueous Solution

A combined experimental-theoretical approach applying X-ray absorption spectroscopy and ab initio molecular dynamics (CP-MD) simulations is used to get insight into the structural determination of oxaliplatin, a third-generation anticancer drug of the cisplatin family, in aqueous solution. Experimental Pt L-III-edge EXAFS and XANES spectra of oxaliplatin in water are compared with theoretical XAS spectra. The latter are obtained as statistically averaged spectra computed for a set of selected snapshots extracted from the MD trajectory of ethyldiamineoxalatoplatinum(II) (EDO-Pt) in liquid water. This compound is a simplified structure of oxaliplatin, where the outer part of the cyclohexane ring contained in the cyclohexanediamine ligand of oxaliplatin has been removed. We show that EDO-Pt is an appropriate model to simulate the spectroscopical properties of oxaliplatin given that the cyclohexane ring does not generate particular features in neither the EXAFS nor the XANES spectra. The computation of average EXAFS spectra using structures from the MD simulation in which atoms are selected according to different cutoff radii around the Pt center allows the assignment of spectral features to particular structural motifs, both in k and R-spaces. The outer oxygen atoms of the oxalate ligand (RPt-OII = 3.97 +/- 0.03 angstrom) are responsible for a well-defined hump at around 6.5 angstrom(-1) in the k(2)-weighted EXAFS spectrum. The conventional EXAFS analysis data procedure is reexamined by its application to the simulated average EXAFS spectra. The structural parameters resulting from the fit may then be compared with those obtained from the simulation, providing an estimation of the methodological error associated with the global fitting procedure. A thorough discussion on the synergy between the experimental and theoretical XAS approaches is presented, and evidence for the detection of a slight hydration structure around the Pt complex is shown, leading to the suggestion of a new challenge to experimental XAS measurements.