Ab Initio Raman Spectra of β-Lactamase Inhibitor Intermediates Bound to E166A SHV β-Lactamase

Computational infrared and Raman spectra by hybrid QM/MM techniques: a study on molecular and catalytic material systems

Vibrational spectroscopy is one of the most well-established and important techniques for characterizing chemical systems. To aid the interpretation of experimental infrared and Raman spectra, we report on recent theoretical developments in the ChemShell computational chemistry environment for modelling vibrational signatures. The hybrid quantum mechanical and molecular mechanical approach is employed, using density functional theory for the electronic structure calculations and classical forcefields for the environment. Computational vibrational intensities at chemical active sites are reported using electrostatic and fully polarizable embedding environments to achieve more realistic vibrational signatures for materials and molecular systems, including solvated molecules, proteins, zeolites and metal oxide surfaces, providing useful insight into the effect of the chemical environment on the signatures obtained from experiment. This work has been enabled by the efficient task-farming parallelism implemented in ChemShell for high-performance computing platforms.  This article is part of a discussion meeting issue 'Supercomputing simulations of advanced materials'.

Multiscale Simulations of Clavulanate Inhibition Identify the Reactive Complex in Class A β-Lactamases and Predict the Efficiency of Inhibition

Clavulanate is used as an effective drug in combination with β-lactam antibiotics to treat infections of some antibiotic resistant bacteria. Here, we perform combined quantum mechanics/molecular mechanics simulations of several covalent complexes of clavulanate with class A β-lactamases KPC-2 and TEM-1. Simulations of the deacylation reactions identify the decarboxylated trans-enamine complex as being responsible for inhibition. Further, the obtained free energy barriers discriminate clinically relevant inhibition (TEM-1) from less effective inhibition (KPC-2).

Fully anharmonic IR and Raman spectra of medium-size molecular systems: accuracy and interpretation

Computation of full infrared (IR) and Raman spectra (including absolute intensities and transition energies) for medium- and large-sized molecular systems beyond the harmonic approximation is one of the most interesting challenges of contemporary computational chemistry. Contrary to common beliefs, low-order perturbation theory is able to deliver results of high accuracy (actually often better than those issuing from current direct dynamics approaches) provided that anharmonic resonances are properly managed. This perspective sketches the recent developments in our research group toward the development of a robust and user-friendly virtual spectrometer rooted in second-order vibrational perturbation theory (VPT2) and usable also by non-specialists essentially as a black-box procedure. Several examples are explicitly worked out in order to illustrate the features of our computational tool together with the most important ongoing developments.

Environmental effects on vibrational properties of carotenoids: experiments and calculations on peridinin

Carotenoids are employed in light-harvesting complexes of dinoflagellates with the two-fold aim to extend the spectral range of the antenna and to protect it from radiation damage. We have studied the effect of the environment on the vibrational properties of the carotenoid peridinin in different solvents by means of vibrational spectroscopies and QM/MM molecular dynamics simulations. Three prototypical solvents were considered: cyclohexane (an apolar/aprotic solvent), deuterated acetonitrile (a polar/aprotic solvent) and methanol (a polar/protic solvent). Thanks to effective normal mode analysis, we were able to assign the experimental Raman and IR bands and to clarify the effect of the solvent on band shifts. In the 1500-1650 cm(-1) region, seven vibrational modes of the polyene chain were identified and assigned to specific molecular vibrations. In the 1700-1800 cm(-1) region a strong progressive down-shift of the lactonic carbonyl frequency is observed passing from cyclohexane to methanol solutions. This has been rationalized here in terms of solvent polarity and solute-solvent hydrogen bond interactions. On the basis of our data we propose a classification of non-equivalent peridinins in the Peridinin-Chlorophyll-Proteins, light-harvesting complexes of dinoflagellates.

NMR chemical shifts as a tool to analyze first principles molecular dynamics simulations in condensed phases: the case of liquid water

We present (1)H NMR chemical shift calculations of liquid water based on first principles molecular dynamics simulations under periodic boundary conditions. We focus on the impact of computational parameters on the structural and spectroscopic data, which is an important question for understanding how sensitive the computed (1)H NMR resonances are upon variation of the simulation setup. In particular, we discuss the influence of the exchange-correlation functional and the size of the basis set, the choice for the fictitious electronic mass and the use of pseudopotentials for the nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) calculation on one hand and the underlying Car-Parrinello-type molecular dynamics simulations on the other hand. Our findings show that the direct effect of these parameters on (1)H shifts is not big, whereas the indirect dependence via the structural data is more important. The (1)H NMR chemical shifts clearly reflect the induced structural changes, illustrating once again the sensitivity of (1)H NMR observables on small changes in the local chemical structure of complex hydrogen-bonded liquids.