Complexation Process of Pravastatin With Metal Ions (Gadolinium, Nickel, Zinc) by NMR Spectroscopy

ABSTRACT Understanding how drugs interact with metal ions is essential for predicting their stability, how well they are absorbed in the body, and possible side effects. Pravastatin is a commonly used statin to prevent cardiovascular heart disease and has several functional groups that can bind metal ions, but its interactions with transition metals and lanthanides are not well studied. This work examines the complexation process of pravastatin with transition metal ions zinc (Zn 2+ ), nickel (Ni 2+ ) and lanthanide gadolinium (Gd 3+ ) using high‐resolution NMR spectroscopy. It was found that the presence of ions (Ni 2+ , Gd 3+ ) in an aqueous solution of pravastatin causes broadening of 1 H NMR signals, leading to a change in signal intensity in the HMQC spectra and disappearance of the correlation between the 1 H and 13 C signals in the HMBC spectra. No significant changes were observed in the NMR spectra of similar experiments of pravastatin with zinc salt. The DOSY NMR spectrum of pravastatin in the presence of ions (Gd 3+ , Ni 2+ , and Zn 2+ ) revealed a change in self‐diffusion coefficients compared to the parent structure. An assumption about the possible centers of localization of Gd 3+ and Ni 2+ ions near the pravastatin molecule has been made.