Molecular recognition and stability of 99mTc-UBI 29–41 based on experimental and semiempirical results

99mTc-UBI 29–41 is an antimicrobial peptide fragment that directly radiolabeled with 99mTc shows high in vitro and in vivo stability, rapid background clearance, minimal accumulation in non-target tissues and rapid detection of infection sites. Molecular mechanics (MM) calculation has been an essential tool in explaining experimental results associated with molecular recognition and stability. This work is an attempt to explain the 99mTc-UBI 29–41 specificity for bacteria and to understand from a structural point of view, the experimental results indicative of a molecular recognition and stability not well favored for two other cationic peptides (99mTc-Tat-1-Scr and 99mTc-Tat-2-Scr ) used as control. Structures of 99mTc-UBI, 99mTc-Tat-1-Scr, 99mTc-Tat-2-Scr and of the corresponding free cationic peptides were built and the optimized structures, in the best stable configurations, were calculated by a MM procedure. In order to correlate the calculated and experimental results, in vitro stability tests with cysteine challenge and stability to dilution in human serum and in saline solution, were performed for the three labeled cationic peptides. The three complexes can be represented by the general formula [Tc(V)(O)(H2O)2(Lysn=1,2-Argn=0,1-peptide)]10+,11+. The potential energies were 104.5, 95.6 and 90.8 kcal/mol for 99mTc-Tat-1-Scr, 99mTc-Tat-2-Scr and 99mTc-UBI 29–41, respectively. Experimental and calculated results were in good agreement. It is thus possible to predict and explain that in similar solution media 99mTc-Tat-2-Scr would be more stable than 99mTc-Tat-1-Scr and why 99mTc-UBI shows the highest stability. In conclusion, the in vitro specific binding to bacteria and the accumulation at infection sites in humans of 99mTc-labeled UBI could be the result of its high thermodynamic stability, selectivity and stereospecificity.