The role of charge distribution on the antimalarial activity of artemisinin analogues.

In this work the calculated nuclear quadrupole coupling constants (NQCC; chi) of 17O in artemisinin and some of its derivatives and the effects of charge density due to the nature of ligands on NQCC of 17O were investigated. All calculations were performed at the HF/3-21G level using the Gaussian 98 program. The results show that the O-O linkage has a characteristic role in the antimalarial activity of artemisinin. In addition, various substitutions on C4 change the charge density on these oxygens and consequently change the pharmaceutical effect of artemisinin. Our results suggest that due to a larger charge density on O1, the heme iron approaches the endoperoxide moiety at the O1 position with preference to the O2 position.

A correlation study of quinoline derivatives and their pharmaceutical behavior by ab initio calculated NQR parameters.

In this paper, ab initio calculated NQR parameters for some quinoline-containing derivatives are presented. The calculations are carried out in a search for the relationships between the charge distribution of these compounds and their ability to interact with haematin. On the basis of NQR parameters, pi-electron density on the nitrogen atom of the quinoline ring plays a dominant role in determining the ability of quinolines to interact with haematin. This point was confirmed with investigation of Fe+3 cation-pi quinoline ring interactions in 2- and 4-aminoquinoline. However, our results do not show any preference for those carbon atoms of the quinoline ring which previous reports have noted. In order to calculate the NQR parameters, the electric field gradient (EFG) should be evaluated at the site of a quadrupolar nucleus in each compound. EFGs are calculated by the Gaussian 98 program using the B3LYP/6-31 G* level of theory.