Synthesis and crystal structure of a silver(I) 6-methylmercaptopurine riboside complex

Silver nitrate reacts with 6-methylmercaptopurine riboside (6-MMPR) in aqueous solution containing methanol and DMSO at room temperature to give a colourless crystalline complex. The crystal structure, determined from synchrotron diffraction data, shows a central Ag(I) ion on a crystallographic twofold rotation axis, coordinated in an almost linear fashion by two 6-MMPR ligands via N7, with the nitrate counterion loosely coordinated as a bidentate ligand, forming a discrete molecular complex as an approximate dihydrate. The complex and the water molecules are connected in a three-dimensional network by hydrogen bonding