In vitro monitoring of ring opening of leflunomide: A surface enhanced Raman scattering and DFT based approach

Monitoring Conformation and Protonation States of Glutathione by Raman Optical Activity and Molecular Dynamics

Glutathione (GSH) is a common antioxidant and its biological activity depends on the conformation and protonation state. We used molecular dynamics, Raman and Raman optical activity (ROA) spectroscopies to investigate GSH structural changes in a broad pH range. Factor analysis of the spectra provided protonation constants (2.05, 3.45, 8.62, 9.41) in good agreement with previously published values. Following the analysis, spectra of differently protonated forms were obtained by extrapolation. The complete deprotonation of the thiol group above pH 11 was clearly visible in the spectra; however, many spectral features did not change much with pH. Experimental spectra at various pH values were decomposed into the simulated ones, which allowed us to study the conformer populations and quality of molecular dynamics (MD). According to this combined ROA/MD analysis conformation of the GSH backbone is affected by the pH changes only in a limited way. The combination of ROA with the computations thus has the potential to improve the MD force field and obtain more accurate populations of the conformer species. The methodology can be used for any molecule, but for a more detailed insight better computational techniques are needed in the future.

Monitoring the in Vitro Thiazolidine Ring Formation of Antioxidant Drug N-Acetyl-l-cysteine at Basic pH and Detection of Reaction Intermediates: A Raman Spectroscopic and Ab Initio Study

The important cyclization reaction of antioxidant drug N-acetyl-l-cysteine (NAC) has been monitored in vitro at basic pH with the help of time series Raman spectroscopy. The thiazoline ring formation of NAC at acidic pH is a well-known reaction and has been studied extensively. However, the formation of a thiazolidine ring from NAC at basic pH has not been investigated precisely till date. The effect of basicity of the medium on the rate of cyclization has been investigated by studying the reaction at five different basic pH values. Raman signatures of cyclization have been observed with the passage of time and are found to appear faster as the basicity of the medium increases. Ab initio calculations have been done to understand the plausible mechanism of the reaction at basic pH. It is observed that formation of a thiazolidine ring from NAC occurs primarily in four steps, which involve proton abstraction from the thiol (SH) group of NAC and subsequent formation of an S-C bond by a nucleophilic attack of the C-S group on the protonated C-O-H group in NAC. Correlation of the theoretically calculated results with experimental Raman spectral analysis has led to a detailed and proper understanding of this important biochemical reaction.

Surface enhanced Raman scattering based reaction monitoring of in vitro decyclization of creatinine → creatine

Raman signatures of decyclization of creatinine to creatine appear after 120 min at pH 8, 60 min at pH 10 and 30 min at pH 12. Signature of reversibility at later stages of the reaction.

In vitro concentration dependent detection of creatinine: a surface enhanced Raman scattering and fluorescence study

(a) SERS spectra and (b) fluorescence spectra of Jaffe complex showing consistent variation relatable to the concentration of CRN.

Temperature dependent Raman and DFT study of creatine

Temperature dependent Raman spectra of creatine powder have been recorded in the temperature range 420-100K at regular intervals and different clusters of creatine have been optimized using density functional theory (DFT) in order to determine the effect of temperature on the hydrogen bonded network in the crystal structure of creatine. Vibrational assignments of all the 48 normal modes of the zwitterionic form of creatine have been done in terms of potential energy distribution obtained from DFT calculations. Precise analysis gives information about thermal motion and intermolecular interactions with respect to temperature in the crystal lattice. Formation of higher hydrogen bonded aggregates on cooling can be visualized from the spectra through clear signature of phase transition between 200K and 180K.