Limiting Values of the one-bond C-H Spin-Spin Coupling Constants of the Imidazole Ring of Histidine at High-pH.

Assessment of the relative amounts of the forms of the imidazole ring of Histidine (His), namely the protonated (H+) and the tautomeric Nε2-H and Nδ1-H forms, respectively, is a challenging task in NMR spectroscopy. Indeed, their determination by direct observation of the 15N and 13C chemical shifts or the one-bond C-H, 1JCH, Spin-Spin Coupling Constants (SSCC) requires knowledge of the "canonical" limiting values of these forms in which each one is present to the extent of 100%. In particular, at high-pH, an accurate determination of these "canonical" limiting values, at which the tautomeric forms of His coexist, is an elusive problem in NMR spectroscopy. Among different NMR-based approaches to treat this problem, we focus here on the computation, at the DFT level of theory, of the high-pH limiting value for the 1JCH SSCC of the imidazole ring of His. Solvent effects were considered by using the polarizable continuum model approach. The results of this computation suggest, first, that the value of 1JCε1H = 205 ± 1.0 Hz should be adopted as the canonical high-pH limiting value for this SSCC; second, the variation of 1JCε1H SSCC during tautomeric changes is minor, i.e., within ±1Hz; and, finally, the value of 1JCδ2H SSCC upon tautomeric changes is large (15 Hz) indicating that, at high-pH or for non-protonated His at any pH, the tautomeric fractions of the imidazole ring of His can be predicted accurately as a function of the observed value of 1JCδ2H SSCC.

Investigation of the resonance-assisted hydrogen bond in model ß-diketones through localized molecular orbital analysis of the spin-spin coupling constants related to the O-H···O hydrogen bond.

The resonance-assisted hydrogen bond (HB) phenomenon has been studied theoretically by a localized molecular orbital (LMO) decomposition of the spin-spin coupling constants between atoms either involved or close to the O-H···O system of some ß-diketones and their saturated counterparts. The analysis, carried out at the level of the second-order polarization propagator approximation, shows that the contributions in terms of LMO to the paramagnetic spin orbital and the spin dipolar Ramsey terms proof the importance of the delocalized π-electron structure supporting the idea of the existence of the resonance-assisted HB phenomenon phenomenon. The LMO contributions to the Fermi contact term indicate mainly the presence of the HB that may or not be linked to the π-electrons.