Three types of induced tryptophan optical activity compared in model dipeptides: theory and experiment.

The tryptophan (Trp) aromatic residue in chiral matrices often exhibits a large optical activity and thus provides valuable structural information. However, it can also obscure spectral contributions from other peptide parts. To better understand the induced chirality, electronic circular dichroism (ECD), vibrational circular dichroism (VCD), and Raman optical activity (ROA) spectra of Trp-containing cyclic dipeptides c-(Trp-X) (where X = Gly, Ala, Trp, Leu, nLeu, and Pro) are analyzed on the basis of experimental spectra and density functional theory (DFT) computations. The results provide valuable insight into the molecular conformational and spectroscopic behavior of Trp. Whereas the ECD is dominated by Trp π-π* transitions, VCD is dominated by the amide modes, well separated from minor Trp contributions. The ROA signal is the most complex. However, an ROA marker band at 1554 cm(-1) indicates the local χ(2) angle value in this residue, in accordance with previous theoretical predictions. The spectra and computations also indicate that the peptide ring is nonplanar, with a shallow potential so that the nonplanarity is primarily induced by the side chains. Dispersion-corrected DFT calculations provide better results than plain DFT, but comparison with experiment suggests that they overestimate the stability of the folded conformers. Molecular dynamics simulations and NMR results also confirm a limited accuracy of the dispersion-DFT model in nonaqueous solvents. Combination of chiral spectroscopies with theoretical analysis thus significantly enhances the information that can be obtained from the induced chirality of the Trp aromatic residue.

Succinobucol's new coat--conjugation with steroids to alter its drug effect and bioavailability.

Synthesis, detailed structural characterization (X-ray, NMR, MS, IR, elemental analysis), and studies of toxicity, antioxidant activity and bioavailability of unique potent anti-atherosclerotic succinobucol-steroid conjugates are reported. The conjugates consist of, on one side, the therapeutically important drug succinobucol ([4-{2,6-di-tert-butyl-4-[(1-{[3-tert-butyl-4-hydroxy-5-(propan-2-yl)phenyl]sulfanyl}ethyl)sulfanyl]phenoxy}-4-oxo-butanoic acid]) possessing an antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activity, and on the other side, plant stanol/sterols (stigmastanol, ß-sitosterol and stigmasterol) possessing an ability to lower the blood cholesterol level. A cholesterol-succinobucol prodrug was also prepared in order to enhance the absorption of succinobucol through the intestinal membrane into the organism and to target the drug into the place of lipid metabolism-The enterohepatic circulation system. Their low toxicity towards mice fibroblasts at maximal concentrations, their antioxidant activity, comparable or even higher than that of ascorbic acid as determined by direct quenching of the DPPH radical, and their potential for significantly altering total and LDL cholesterol levels, suggest that these conjugates merit further studies in the treatment of cardiovascular or other related diseases. A brief discussion of succinobucol's ability to quench the radicals, supported with a computational model of the electrostatic potential mapped on the electron density surface of the drug, is also presented.

Intramolecular proton transfer in calixphyrin derivatives.

Calix[4]phyrins are convenient models for porphyrin metabolism intermediates. They also attract attention as complexation agents in macromolecular chemistry. For the biological function and chemical properties, their flexibility plays an important role. In this study, we explore the inner hydrogen motion previously detected in some calix[4]phyrins as a slow chemical exchange in the NMR spectra (J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2004, 126, 13714). The potential energy surface of this motion is defined by two generalized coordinates and modeled at DFT levels. The transitional barriers thus obtained agree reasonably well with those calculated from dynamic (1)H NMR measurements. The transitions over both the sp(2) and sp(3) links are found to be possible. During the transfer, an intermediate is formed where the two hydrogen atoms are attached to the neighboring nitrogens. Surprisingly, the barriers channeling the sp(2) and sp(3) paths in significantly depend on the dispersion and other interactions between remote side chains. The results confirm the possibility of a fine-tuning of the calixphyrin core properties by distant substituents.

Solvent dependence of the N-methylacetamide structure and force field.

The N-methylacetamide molecule (NMA) is an important model for peptide and protein vibrational spectroscopy as it contains the main amide chromophore. In the past, some observed NMA geometry and spectral features could not be entirely explained at the harmonic level or by a single-conformer model. In particular, the spectra were found to be very dependent on molecular environment. In this work NMA Raman and infrared (IR) spectra in a variety of conditions were remeasured and simulated theoretically to separate the fundamental, dimer, and anharmonic bands. Under vacuum the MP2, MP4, and CCSD(T) wave function methods predicted a broad anharmonic potential energy well or even a double-well for the amide nitrogen out of plane motion, which density functional methods failed to reproduce. However, eventual nonplanar minima cannot support an asymmetric quantum state or explain band splittings observed in some experiments. In polar solvents the potential becomes more harmonic and the amide plane more rigid. On the other hand, solvent polarity enhances other anharmonic phenomena, such as the coupling between the carbonyl stretching (amide I) and lower frequency amide bending modes. The amide I band splitting is commonly observed experimentally. The influence of the CH(3) group rotations modeled by a rigid rotor model was found to be important for explaining some features of the spectra in a solid parahydrogen matrix. At room temperature the methyl rotation contributes to a nonspecific inhomogeneous band broadening. The dependence of the amide group flexibility on the environment polarity may have interesting consequences for peptide and protein folding studies.

Simulations of vibrational spectra from classical trajectories: calibration with ab initio force fields.

An algorithm allowing simulating vibrational spectra from classical time-dependent trajectories was applied for infrared absorption, vibrational circular dichroism, Raman, and Raman optical activity of model harmonic systems. The implementation of the theory within the TINKER molecular dynamics (MD) program package was tested with ab initio harmonic force fields in order to determine the feasibility for more extended MD simulations. The results suggest that sufficiently accurate frequencies can be simulated with integration time steps shorter than about 0.5 fs. For a given integration time step, lower vibrational frequencies ( approximately 0-2000 cm(-1)) could be reproduced with a higher accuracy than higher-frequency vibrational modes (e.g., O-H and C-H stretching). In principle, the algorithm also provides correct intensities for ideal systems. In applied simulations, however, the intensity profiles are affected by an unrealistic energy distribution between normal modes and a slow energy relaxation. Additionally, the energy fluctuations may cause weakening of the intensities on average. For ab initio force fields, these obstacles could be overcome by an arbitrary normal mode energy correction. For general MD simulations, averaging of many shorter MD trajectories started with randomly distributed atomic velocities provided the best spectral shapes. alpha-pinene, D-gluconic acid, formaldehyde dimer, and the acetylprolineamide molecule were used in the tests.