Cation-π Interactions in Serotonin: Conformational, Electronic Distribution, and Energy Decomposition Analysis

Comparative structural and vibrational study of the four lowest energy conformers of serotonin

A computational investigation of all possible lowest energy conformers of serotonin was carried out at the B3LYP/6-311++G** level. Out of the 14 possible lowest energy conformers, the first 4 conformers were investigated thoroughly for the optimized geometries, fundamental frequencies, the potential energy distributions, APT and natural charges, natural bond orbital (NBO) analysis, MEP, Contour map, total density array, HOMO, LUMO energies. The second third and fourth conformers are energetically at higher temperatures of 78, 94 and 312K respectively with respect to the first one. Bond angles and bond lengths do not show significant variations while the dihedral angles vary significantly in going from one conformer to the other. Some of the vibrational modes of the indole moiety are conformation dependent to some extent whereas most of the normal modes of vibration of amino-ethyl side chain vary significantly in going from one conformer to conformer. The MEP for the four conformers suggested that the sites of the maximum positive and negative ESP change on changing the conformation. The charges at some atomic sites also change significantly from conformer to conformer.

Influence of hydration on ion-biomolecule interactions: M(+)(indole)(H2O)(n) (M = Na, K; n = 3-6)

The indole functional group can be found in many biologically relevant molecules, such as neurotransmitters, pineal hormones and medicines. Indole has been used as a tractable model to study the hydration structures of biomolecules as well as the interplay of non-covalent interactions within ion-biomolecule-water complexes, which largely determine their structure and dynamics. With three potential binding sites: above the six- or five-member ring, and the N-H group, the competition between π and hydrogen bond interactions involves multiple locations. Electrostatic interactions from monovalent cations are in direct competition with hydrogen bonding interactions, as structural configurations involving both direct cation-indole interactions and cation-water-indole bridging interactions were observed. The different charge densities of Na(+) and K(+) give rise to different structural conformers at the same level of hydration. Infrared spectra with parallel hybrid functional-based calculations and Gibbs free energy calculations revealed rich structural insights into the Na(+)/K(+)(indole)(H2O)3-6 cluster ion complexes. Isotopic (H/D) analyses were applied to decouple the spectral features originating from the OH and NH stretches. Results showed no evidence of direct interaction between water and the NH group of indole (via a σ-hydrogen bond) at current levels of hydration with the incorporation of cations. Hydrogen bonding to a π-system, however, was ubiquitous at hydration levels between two and five.

Computational studies of the electronic, conductivities, and spectroscopic properties of hydrolysed Ru(II) anticancer complexes

The mechanism of activation of metal-based anticancer agents was reported to be through hydrolysis. In this study, computational method was used to gain insight to the correlation between the chemistry of the hydrolysis and the anticancer activities of selected Ru(II)-based complexes. Interestingly, we observed that the mechanism of activation by hydrolysis and their consequential anticancer activities is associated with favourable thermodynamic changes, higher hyperpolarizability (β), lower band-gap and higher first-order net current. The Fermi contact (FC) and spin dipole (SD) are found to be the two most significant Ramsey terms that determine the spin-spin couplings (J(HZ)) of most of the existing bonds in the complexes. Many of the computed properties give insights into the change in the chemistry of the complexes due to hydrolysis. Besides strong correlations of the computed properties to the anticancer activities of the complexes, using the quantum theory of atoms in a molecule (QTAIM) to analyse the spectroscopic properties shows a stronger correlation between the spectroscopic properties of Ru atom to the reported anticancer activities than the sum over of the spectroscopic properties of all atoms in the complexes.

A new structure of a serotonin salt: comparison and conformational analysis of all known serotonin complexes

Four serotonin salt structures (serotonin adipate, C10H13N2O(+)·C6H9O4(-), is a previously unknown structure) were analysed to understand the influence of the anion on serotonin conformation. Hydrogen bonding alone favours a flat conformation, whereas additional stacking interactions between ions may possibly account for the nonplanar conformation. Since molecular conformation, stability and biological activity are interrelated, one can consider influencing the chemical and biological properties of serotonin by selecting an appropriate counter-ion for salt formation.

Theoretical study of the electronic and spectroscopic properties of some Ru(II) anticancer complexes

DFT method has been applied to study the thermodynamic and spectroscopic properties of three Ru-based complexes. Possible reasons for the reported experimental stability of complexes 1 and 2 with bidentate chelating ligands over complex 3 have been explained using computed properties. The results show that the trend in their thermodynamic, hyperpolarizabilities, magnetizabilities and the NMR isotropic shielding agree well with many of their experimental properties which give further detail explanation to the reported differences in their stability, hydrolysis and anticancer activities. We also found out that these complexes which were originally designed as anticancer agents have high hyperpolarizabilities which suggest that they can also act as good non-linear optical (NLO) materials.