Conical intersections of free energy surfaces in solution: Effect of electron correlation on a protonated Schiff base in methanol solution

2010 ◽  
Vol 133 (6) ◽  
pp. 064107 ◽  
Author(s):  
Toshifumi Mori ◽  
Katsuhiro Nakano ◽  
Shigeki Kato
Keyword(s):  
Free Energy ◽  
Schiff Base ◽  
Electron Correlation ◽  
Methanol Solution ◽  
Conical Intersections ◽  
Energy Surfaces

scholarly journals Competitive cocrystallization and its application in the separation of flavonoids

IUCrJ ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 195-207
Author(s):  
Yanming Xia ◽  
Yuanfeng Wei ◽  
Hui Chen ◽  
Shuai Qian ◽  
Jianjun Zhang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Free Energy ◽  
Formation Constant ◽  
Energy Gap ◽  
Hirshfeld Surface ◽  
Methanol Solution ◽  
Model Compounds ◽  
Electronic Density ◽  
Chemical Structures ◽  
Similar Chemical ◽  
Interaction Contribution

Recently, cocrystallization has been widely employed to tailor physicochemical properties of drugs in the pharmaceutical field. In this study, cocrystallization was applied to separate natural compounds with similar structures. Three flavonoids [baicalein (BAI), quercetin (QUE) and myricetin (MYR)] were used as model compounds. The coformer caffeine (CAF) could form cocrystals with all three flavonoids, namely BAI–CAF (cocrystal 1), QUE–CAF (cocrystal 2) and MYR–CAF (cocrystal 3). After adding CAF to methanol solution containing MYR and QUE (or QUE and BAI), cocrystal 3 (or cocrystal 2) preferentially formed rather than cocrystal 2 (or cocrystal 1), indicating that flavonoid separation could be achieved by competitive cocrystallization. After co-mixing the slurry of two flavonoids with CAF followed by centrifugation, the resolution ratio that could be achieved was 70–80% with purity >90%. Among the three cocrystals, cocrystal 3 showed the lowest formation constant with a negative Gibbs free energy of nucleation and the highest energy gap. Hirshfeld surface analysis and density of states analysis found that cocrystal 3 had the highest strong interaction contribution and the closest electronic density, respectively, followed by cocrystal 2 and cocrystal 1, suggesting CAF could competitively form a cocrystal with MYR much more easily than QUE and BAI. Cocrystallization is a promising approach for green and effective separation of natural products with similar chemical structures.

scholarly journals Free Energy Landscape and Rate Estimation of the Aromatic Ring Flips in Basic Pancreatic Trypsin Inhibitor Using Metadynamics

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pär Söderhjelm ◽  
Mandar Kulkarni
Keyword(s):  
Free Energy ◽  
Trypsin Inhibitor ◽  
Side Chain ◽  
Side Chains ◽  
Aromatic Residues ◽  
Basic Pancreatic Trypsin Inhibitor ◽  
Pancreatic Trypsin Inhibitor ◽  
Energy Surfaces ◽  
Aromatic Side Chains

Aromatic side-chains (phenylalanine and tyrosine) of a protein flip by 180° around the Cβ-Cγ axis (χ2 dihedral of side-chain) producing two symmetry-equivalent states. The ring-flip dynamics act as an NMR probe to understand local conformational fluctuations. Ring-flips are categorized as slow (ms onwards) or fast (ns to near ms) based on timescales accessible to NMR experiments. In this study, we investigated the ability of the infrequent metadynamics approach to discriminate between slow and fast ring-flips for eight individual aromatic side-chains (F4, Y10, Y21, F22, Y23, F33, Y35, F45) of basic pancreatic trypsin inhibitor (BPTI). Well-tempered metadynamics simulations were performed to observe ring-flipping free energy surfaces for all eight aromatic residues. The results indicate that χ2 as a standalone collective variable (CV) is not sufficient to classify fast and slow ring-flips. Most of the residues needed χ1 (N−Cχα) as a complementary CV, indicating the importance of librational motions in ring-flips. Multiple pathways and mechanisms were observed for residues F4, Y10, and F22. Recrossing events are observed for residues F22 and F33, indicating a possible role of friction effects in the ring-flipping. The results demonstrate the successful application of the metadynamics based approach to estimate ring-flip rates of aromatic residues in BPTI and identify certain limitations of the approach.

Calculating Ring Pucker Free Energy Surfaces From Reaction Coordinate Forces

2009 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher B. Barnett ◽  
Kevin J. Naidoo ◽  
Dong-Qing Wei ◽  
Xi-Jun Wang
Keyword(s):  
Free Energy ◽  
Reaction Coordinate ◽  
Energy Surfaces ◽  
Ring Pucker

The A39G FF domain folds on a volcano-shaped free energy surface via separate pathways

2021 ◽  
Vol 118 (46) ◽  
pp. e2115113118
Author(s):  
Ved P. Tiwari ◽  
Yuki Toyama ◽  
Debajyoti De ◽  
Lewis E. Kay ◽  
Pramodh Vallurupalli
Keyword(s):  
Free Energy ◽  
Chemical Exchange ◽  
Exchange Process ◽  
Conformational Dynamics ◽  
Chemical Exchange Saturation Transfer ◽  
Folding Kinetics ◽  
Free Energy Surface ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Order Of Magnitude ◽  
Energy Surfaces

Conformational dynamics play critical roles in protein folding, misfolding, function, misfunction, and aggregation. While detecting and studying the different conformational states populated by protein molecules on their free energy surfaces (FESs) remain a challenge, NMR spectroscopy has emerged as an invaluable experimental tool to explore the FES of a protein, as conformational dynamics can be probed at atomic resolution over a wide range of timescales. Here, we use chemical exchange saturation transfer (CEST) to detect “invisible” minor states on the energy landscape of the A39G mutant FF domain that exhibited “two-state” folding kinetics in traditional experiments. Although CEST has mostly been limited to studies of processes with rates between ∼5 to 300 s−1 involving sparse states with populations as low as ∼1%, we show that the line broadening that is often associated with minor state dips in CEST profiles can be exploited to inform on additional conformers, with lifetimes an order of magnitude shorter and populations close to 10-fold smaller than what typically is characterized. Our analysis of CEST profiles that exploits the minor state linewidths of the 71-residue A39G FF domain establishes a folding mechanism that can be described in terms of a four-state exchange process between interconverting states spanning over two orders of magnitude in timescale from ∼100 to ∼15,000 μs. A similar folding scheme is established for the wild-type domain as well. The study shows that the folding of this small domain proceeds through a pair of sparse, partially structured intermediates via two discrete pathways on a volcano-shaped FES.

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