A Minimal Protein Folding Model To Measure Hydrophobic and CH–π Effects on Interactions between Nonpolar Surfaces in Water

Experimental and Computational Models for Side Chain Discrimination in Peptide-Protein Interactions

A bis(18‐crown‐6) Tröger's base receptor and 4‐substituted hepta‐1,7‐diyl bisammonium salt ligands have been used as a model system to study the interactions between non‐polar side chains of peptides and an aromatic cavity of a protein. NMR titrations and NOESY/ROESY NMR spectroscopy were used to analyze the discrimination of the ligands by the receptor based on the substituent of the ligand, both quantitatively (free binding energies) and qualitatively (conformations). The analysis showed that an all‐anti conformation of the heptane chain was preferred for most of the ligands, both free and when bound to the receptor, and that for all of the receptor‐ligand complexes, the substituent was located inside or partly inside of the aromatic cavity of the receptor. We estimated the free binding energy of a methyl‐ and a phenyl group to an aromatic cavity, via CH‐π, and combined aromatic CH‐π and π‐π interactions to be −1.7 and −3.3 kJ mol⁻¹, respectively. The experimental results were used to assess the accuracy of different computational methods, including molecular mechanics (MM) and density functional theory (DFT) methods, showing that MM was superior.

A Fullerene-Based Molecular Torsion Balance for Investigating Noncovalent Interactions at the C60 Surface

To investigate the nature and strength of noncovalent interactions at the fullerene surface, molecular torsion balances consisting of C₆₀ and organic moieties connected through a biphenyl linkage were synthesized. NMR and computational studies show that the unimolecular system remains in equilibrium between well-defined folded and unfolded conformers owing to restricted rotation around the biphenyl C-C bond. The energy differences between the two conformers depend on the substituents and is ascribed to differences in the intramolecular noncovalent interactions between the organic moieties and the fullerene surface. Fullerenes favor interacting with the π-faces of benzenes bearing electron-donating substituents. The correlation between the folding free energies and corresponding Hammett constants of the substituents in the arene-containing torsion balances reflects the contributions of the electrostatic interactions and dispersion force to face-to-face arene-fullerene interactions.

A Molecular Torsion Balance Study: A Nearby Anionic Group Exerts Little Influence on Hydrophobic Interactions between Nonpolar Surfaces

Polar groups have a solvent ordering effect on water and therefore may affect hydrophobic binding energies for nearby lipophilic surfaces. This would mean that determinations of excess surface free energy association energies require consideration of nearby polar functional groups. This paper reports results of a study to measure this possible effect. It was concluded from the models used here that an anionic polar group nearby a hydrophobic surface has little or no effect on the magnitude of hydrophobic association.

Molecular recognition in chemical and biological systems

Structure-based ligand design in medicinal chemistry and crop protection relies on the identification and quantification of weak noncovalent interactions and understanding the role of water. Small-molecule and protein structural database searches are important tools to retrieve existing knowledge. Thermodynamic profiling, combined with X-ray structural and computational studies, is the key to elucidate the energetics of the replacement of water by ligands. Biological receptor sites vary greatly in shape, conformational dynamics, and polarity, and require different ligand-design strategies, as shown for various case studies. Interactions between dipoles have become a central theme of molecular recognition. Orthogonal interactions, halogen bonding, and amide⋅⋅⋅π stacking provide new tools for innovative lead optimization. The combination of synthetic models and biological complexation studies is required to gather reliable information on weak noncovalent interactions and the role of water.

Aromatic rings in chemical and biological recognition: energetics and structures

This review describes a multidimensional treatment of molecular recognition phenomena involving aromatic rings in chemical and biological systems. It summarizes new results reported since the appearance of an earlier review in 2003 in host-guest chemistry, biological affinity assays and biostructural analysis, data base mining in the Cambridge Structural Database (CSD) and the Protein Data Bank (PDB), and advanced computational studies. Topics addressed are arene-arene, perfluoroarene-arene, S⋅⋅⋅aromatic, cation-π, and anion-π interactions, as well as hydrogen bonding to π systems. The generated knowledge benefits, in particular, structure-based hit-to-lead development and lead optimization both in the pharmaceutical and in the crop protection industry. It equally facilitates the development of new advanced materials and supramolecular systems, and should inspire further utilization of interactions with aromatic rings to control the stereochemical outcome of synthetic transformations.