The Utility of the HSAB Principle via the Fukui Function in Biological Systems

Spectroscopic profiling, DFT computations, molecular docking and molecular dynamic simulation of biologically active 5-isoquinolinesulfonic acid

The title compound 5-isoquinolinesulfonic acid (5IQSA) is characterized using the FT-IR, FT-Raman, NMR and UV-Vis spectra. The optimized molecular geometry, vibrational assignments, infrared intensities and Raman scattering are precisely calculated using Density Functional Theory (DFT) with the B3LYP/6-311++G(d,p) basis set. The ¹H and ¹³C NMR chemical shifts are computed and compared with the experimental data. The TD-DFT/M062X/6-311++G(d,p) method is used to compute UV-Vis for different solvents, and the results are compared to UV-Vis spectra obtained experimentally. The HOMO-LUMO band gap energy is calculated for various solvents and compared to the band gap of UV-Vis spectra. Molecular dynamics simulations are used to investigate the biomolecular stability. Non-Linear Optical (NLO) behaviour has been illustrated using hyperpolarizability calculations. Topological studies such as Reduced Gradient Density (RDG), Electron Localization Function (ELF) and Localized Orbital Locator (LOL) are performed. The Molecular Electrostatic Potential (MEP), Natural Bond Orbital (NBO) analysis, Fukui functions and thermodynamic properties were analysed. To explore the biological behaviour of the examined compound, molecular docking was performed to evaluate the hydrogen bond distance and binding energies with (2XA4) kinase inhibitor protein.Communicated by Ramaswamy H. Sarma.

QSAR Studies, Molecular Docking, Molecular Dynamics, Synthesis, and Biological Evaluation of Novel Quinolinone-Based Thiosemicarbazones against Mycobacterium tuberculosis

In this study, a series of novel quinolinone-based thiosemicarbazones were designed in silico and their activities tested in vitro against Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M. tuberculosis). Quantitative structure-activity relationship (QSAR) studies were performed using quinolinone and thiosemicarbazide as pharmacophoric nuclei; the best model showed statistical parameters of R² = 0.83; F = 47.96; s = 0.31, and was validated by several different methods. The van der Waals volume, electron density, and electronegativity model results suggested a pivotal role in antituberculosis (anti-TB) activity. Subsequently, from this model a new series of quinolinone-thiosemicarbazone 11a-e was designed and docked against two tuberculosis protein targets: enoyl-acyl carrier protein reductase (InhA) and decaprenylphosphoryl-β-D-ribose-2'-oxidase (DprE1). Molecular dynamics simulation over 200 ns showed a binding energy of -71.3 to -12.7 Kcal/mol, suggesting likely inhibition. In vitro antimycobacterial activity of quinolinone-thiosemicarbazone for 11a-e was evaluated against M. bovis, M. tuberculosis H37Rv, and six different strains of drug-resistant M. tuberculosis. All compounds exhibited good to excellent activity against all the families of M. tuberculosis. Several of the here synthesized compounds were more effective than the standard drugs (isoniazid, oxafloxacin), 11d and 11e being the most active products. The results suggest that these compounds may contribute as lead compounds in the research of new potential antimycobacterial agents.

From Density Functional Theory to Conceptual Density Functional Theory and Biosystems

The position of conceptual density functional theory (CDFT) in the history of density functional theory (DFT) is sketched followed by a chronological report on the introduction of the various DFT descriptors such as the electronegativity, hardness, softness, Fukui function, local version of softness and hardness, dual descriptor, linear response function, and softness kernel. Through a perturbational approach they can all be characterized as response functions, reflecting the intrinsic reactivity of an atom or molecule upon perturbation by a different system, including recent extensions by external fields. Derived descriptors such as the electrophilicity or generalized philicity, derived from the nature of the energy vs. N behavior, complete this picture. These descriptors can be used as such or in the context of principles such as Sanderson’s electronegativity equalization principle, Pearson’s hard and soft acids and bases principle, the maximum hardness, and more recently, the minimum electrophilicity principle. CDFT has known an ever-growing use in various subdisciplines of chemistry: from organic to inorganic chemistry, from polymer to materials chemistry, and from catalysis to nanotechnology. The increasing size of the systems under study has been coped with thanks to methodological evolutions but also through the impressive evolution in software and hardware. In this flow, biosystems entered the application portfolio in the past twenty years with studies varying (among others) from enzymatic catalysis to biological activity and/or the toxicity of organic molecules and to computational peptidology. On the basis of this evolution, one can expect that “the best is yet to come”.

Harder, better, faster, stronger: Large-scale QM and QM/MM for predictive modeling in enzymes and proteins

Computational prediction of enzyme mechanism and protein function requires accurate physics-based models and suitable sampling. We discuss recent advances in large-scale quantum mechanical (QM) modeling of biochemical systems that have reduced the cost of high-accuracy models. Tradeoffs between sampling and accuracy have motivated modeling with molecular mechanics (MM) in a multiscale QM/MM or iterative approach. Limitations to both conventional density-functional theory and classical MM force fields remain for describing noncovalent interactions in comparison to experiment or wavefunction theory. Because predictions of enzyme action (i.e. electrostatics), free energy barriers, and mechanisms are sensitive to the protocol and embedding method in QM/MM, convergence tests and systematic methods for quantifying QM-level interactions are a needed, active area of development.

Thermochemical and Quantum Descriptor Calculations for Gaining Insight into Ricin Toxin A (RTA) Inhibitors

In this work, we performed a study to assess the interactions between the ricin toxin A (RTA) subunit of ricin and some of its inhibitors using modern semiempirical quantum chemistry and ONIOM quantum mechanics/molecular mechanics (QM/MM) methods. Two approaches were followed (calculation of binding enthalpies, ΔH _bind, and reactivity quantum chemical descriptors) and compared with the respective half-maximal inhibitory concentration (IC₅₀) experimental data, to gain insight into RTA inhibitors and verify which quantum chemical method would better describe RTA-ligand interactions. The geometries for all RTA-ligand complexes were obtained after running classical molecular dynamics simulations in aqueous media. We found that single-point energy calculations of ΔH _bind with the PM6-DH+, PM6-D3H4, and PM7 semiempirical methods and ONIOM QM/MM presented a good correlation with the IC₅₀ data. We also observed, however, that the correlation decreased significantly when we calculated ΔH _bind after full-atom geometry optimization with all semiempirical methods. Based on the results from reactivity descriptors calculations for the cases studied, we noted that both types of interactions, molecular overlap and electrostatic interactions, play significant roles in the overall affinity of these ligands for the RTA binding pocket.

PRIMoRDiA: A Software to Explore Reactivity and Electronic Structure in Large Biomolecules

Plenty of enzymes with structural data do not have their mechanism of catalysis elucidated. Reactivity descriptors, theoretical quantities generated from resolved electronic structure, provide a way to predict and rationalize chemical processes of such systems. In this Application Note, we present PRIMoRDiA (PRIMoRDiA Macromolecular Reactivity Descriptors Access), a software built to calculate the reactivity descriptors of large biosystems by employing an efficient and accurate treatment of the large output files produced by quantum chemistry packages. Here, we show the general implementation details and the software main features. Calculated descriptors were applied for a set of enzymatic systems in order to show their relevance for biological studies and the software potential for use in large scale. Also, we test PRIMoRDiA to aid in the interaction depiction between the SARS-CoV-2 main protease and a potential inhibitor.

Atom-Condensed Fukui Function in Condensed Phases and Biological Systems and Its Application to Enzymatic Fixation of Carbon Dioxide

Local reactivity descriptors such as atom-condensed Fukui functions are promising computational tools to study chemical reactivity at specific sites within a molecule. Their applications have been mainly focused on isolated molecules in their most stable conformation without considering the effects of the surroundings. Here we propose to combine quantum mechanics/molecular mechanics Born-Oppenheimer molecular dynamics simulations to obtain the microstates (configurations) of a molecular system using different representations of the molecular environment and calculate Boltzmann-weighted atom-condensed local reactivity descriptors based on conceptual density functional theory. Our approach takes the conformational fluctuations of the molecular system and the polarization of its electron density by the environment into account, allowing us to analyze the effect of the molecular environment on reactivity. In this contribution, we apply the method mentioned above to the catalytic fixation of carbon dioxide by crotonyl-CoA carboxylase/reductase and study if the enzyme alters the reactivity of its substrate compared with an aqueous solution. Our main result is that the protein environment activates the substrate by the elimination of solute-solvent hydrogen bonds from aqueous solution in the two elementary steps of the reaction mechanism: the nucleophilic attack of a hydride anion from NADPH on the α,β-unsaturated thioester and the electrophilic attack of carbon dioxide on the formed enolate species.

α-Unsaturated 3-Amino-1-carboxymethyl-β-lactams as Bacterial PBP Inhibitors: Synthesis and Biochemical Assessment

Innovative monocyclic β-lactam entities create opportunities in the battle against resistant bacteria because of their PBP acylation potential, intrinsically high β-lactamase stability and compact scaffold. α-Benzylidene-substituted 3-amino-1-carboxymethyl-β-lactams were recently shown to be potent PBP inhibitors and constitute eligible anchor points for synthetic elaboration of the chemical space around the central β-lactam ring. The present study discloses a 12-step synthesis of ten α-arylmethylidenecarboxylates using a microwave-assisted Wittig olefination as the crucial reaction step. The library was designed aiming at enhanced β-lactam electrophilicity and extended electron flow after enzymatic attack. Additionally, increased β-lactamase stability and intermolecular target interaction were envisioned by tackling both the substitution pattern of the aromatic ring and the β-lactam C4-position. The significance of α-unsaturation was validated and the R39/PBP3 inhibitory potency shown to be augmented the most through decoration of the aromatic ring with electron-withdrawing groups. Furthermore, ring cleavage by representative β-lactamases was ruled out, providing new insights in the SAR landscape of monocyclic β-lactams as eligible PBP or β-lactamase inhibitors.

Rationalization and prediction of the impact of different metals and root exudates on carbon dioxide emission from soil

Quantitative structure-property relationship modeling method developed from the quantum four-element concept of electronic attributes is validated by the accurate prediction of the redox potentials, deprotonation constants, stability constants and the maximum biosorption capacity of various metal ions and verification of the toxicological endpoint of soil nematodes and mouse. This approach is an extremely promising tool for rationalizing and predicting the toxicity and mobility of different metals and the emission of carbon dioxide from soil. The results demonstrate that the high fungal toxicity and low ion-humic acid binding of cadmium (2+) and the strong complexation of root exudates, such as oxalic acid, citric acid and malic acid, are most likely to promote carbon release.

Spectroscopic, quantum computational and molecular docking studies on 1-phenylcyclopentane carboxylic acid

The vibrational wavenumbers of optimized molecular structure of 1-phenylcyclopentane carboxylic acid (1PCPCA) molecule have been calculated by quantum chemical theory and compared with experimental results. The density functional theory (DFT) approach is followed using the method B3LYP and 6-311++G(d,p) basis set. Using potential energy distribution, all the assignments of the basic vibrational modes were calculated. Natural bond orbital (NBO) and atoms in molecules (AIM) topological studies applied to get the intermolecular interactions of the compound. ¹H and ¹³C chemical shift of NMR was estimated on the molecule and also compared with the experimental spectra. In order to find the band gap, the time-dependent (TD-DFT) method is used to get the higher order energy levels properties and also compared with experimental data of UV-vis spectrum. From the analysis of various spectroscopic studies, there is a good relationship between the experimental and theoretical values obtained. Quantum characters, bio-active nature and reactive areas of the molecule are revealed by Fukui function, molecular electrostatic potential (MEP) and Hirshfeld surface studies. The human enzyme steroidogenic types and their protein targets were tested with this molecule by molecular docking.

The influence of ZnII coordination sphere and chemical structure over the reactivity of metallo-β-lactamase model compounds

The first coordination sphere influences the reactivity of metallo-β-lactamase monozinc model complexes.

Docking of Covalent Ligands: Challenges and Approaches

Covalent ligands have recently regained considerable attention in drug discovery. The rational design of such ligands, however, is still faced with particular challenges, mostly related to the fact that covalent bond formation is a quantum mechanical phenomenon which cannot adequately be handled by the force fields or empirical approaches typically used for noncovalent protein-ligand interactions. Although the necessity for quantum chemical approaches is clear, they cannot yet routinely be applied on large data sets of ligands or for a broader exploration of binding modes in docking calculations. On the other hand, technical solutions for performing docking calculations with covalent ligands are available, but their scope is normally quite limited. Scoring functions typically neglect the contribution from covalent bond formation completely. In this situation, the question arises how to approach covalent ligands and which methods to choose for their docking and design.

The nature of the silicaphilic fluorescence of PDMPO

Interactions with silica moderates the fluorescence behaviour of PDMPO.

Density functional theory study of the local molecular properties of acetamide derivatives as anti-HIV drugs

Accurate quantum chemical computations based on density functional theory (DFT) were performed on the series of 2-(4-(naphthalen-2-yl)-1,2,3-thiadiazol-5-ylthio)-N-acetamide (TTA) derivatives. The local reactivity of the acetamide derivatives as anti-HIV drugs were studied in terms of Fukui functions in the framework of DFT. The results based on the basis set superposition error (BSSE) corrections showed that the mechanism of bond formation between the acetamide derivatives and tyrosine as a biological molecule occurs mainly through nitrogen atoms. The intramolecular interaction energies between the acetamide derivatives and tyrosine were calculated and the nature of the intermolecular interaction was revealed by natural bond orbital charge (NBO) analysis. The results suggest that acetamide derivatives with bromophenyl and nitrophenyl substitutions are the most potent as anti-HIV drugs.