Formation of mononuclear and chloro-bridged binuclear copper(II) complexes of patellamide D, a naturally occurring cyclic peptide: influence of anion and solvent.

Patellamide D (patH(4)) is a cyclic octapeptide isolated from the ascidian Lissoclinum patella. The peptide possesses a 24-azacrown-8 macrocyclic structure containing two oxazoline and two thiazole rings, each separated by an amino acid. The present spectrophotometric, electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) and mass spectral studies show that patellamide D reacts with CuCl(2) and triethylamine in acetonitrile to form mononuclear and binuclear copper(II) complexes containing chloride. Molecular modelling and EPR studies suggest that the chloride anion bridges the copper(II) ions in the binuclear complex Cu(2)(patH(2))(mu-Cl). These results contrast with a previous study employing both base and methanol, the latter substituting for chloride in the copper(II) complexes en route to the stable mu-carbonato binuclear copper(II) complex [Cu(2) (patH(2))(mu-CO(3))]. Solvent clearly plays an important role in both stabilising these metal ion complexes and influencing their chemical reactivities.