Maria C. Guimarães,
Josué M. Silla,
Elaine F. F. da Cunha,
Teodorico C. Ramalho and
Matheus P. Freitas*
Department of Chemistry, Federal University of Lavras, P.O. Box 3037, 37200-000, Lavras, MG, Brazil. E-mail: matheus@dqi.ufla.br
First published on 21st November 2016
5-Deoxy-5-fluoro-D-xylulose (DFX) binds to the xylulokinase enzyme and, as a free ligand, it has preferential conformations governed by intramolecular interactions, such as hydrogen bonds and hyperconjugative interactions. The role of intramolecular hydrogen bonds on the bioconformation of DFX has not been studied yet, despite the relevance of this topic to explain the mode of interaction between the ligand and enzyme and, therefore, the action mechanism of this molecule. DFX presents several conformations in the gas phase and implicit water, as determined by theoretical calculations, but the main optimized geometries do not match the bioactive conformation nor the most stable docked structure. This indicates that even expected strong interactions, such as hydrogen bonds, are overcome by the enzyme induced fit of DFX. The natural consequence of this finding in three-dimensional quantitative structure–activity relationship (3D-QSAR) analysis is that the use of conformations obtained in a receptor-free environment can cause misinterpretation of the chemical and biological results.
It has been found that hydrophobic and hyperconjugative interactions are not strong enough to keep the bioconformation of organofluorine anesthetics as in the gas phase or solution.2–4 However, hydrogen bonds are known as being stronger forces than other noncovalent interactions,5 and usually ascribed as the responsible phenomenon for the architecture of supramolecular systems,6,7 ligand–enzyme interaction8 and conformation of small molecules.9,10 Despite the seeming lack of hydrogen bond involving fluorine as proton acceptor in solution,10–13 other nucleophilic sites in a molecule, such as oxygen and nitrogen atoms, can induce conformational changes due to intramolecular hydrogen bonds.14
This work reports the theoretical conformational analysis of DFX (Fig. 1) in the gas phase, implicit and explicit water solution, and also docked inside the active site of xylulokinase (Protein Data Bank code 4BC5), in order to find out the role of intramolecular hydrogen bonds on the bioactive conformation of a small molecule containing fluorine and oxygen (as hydroxyl and carbonyl groups) as proton donors and acceptors. Ultimately, the outcomes of this study can aid the design of congeneric drugs. In addition, the suitability of three-dimensional quantitative structure–activity relationship (3D-QSAR) techniques in drug design is evaluated, since such molecular modeling approaches require geometry optimization and 3D-alignment to obtain molecular descriptors for further correlation with bioactivity values; if the optimized enzyme-free conformation of DFX diverges from its bioconformation, such as in enflurane,3 isoflurane4 and 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid,15 the use of 3D molecular descriptors can be of limited utility.
![]() | ||
Fig. 1 Chemical structure of 5-deoxy-5-fluoro-D-xylulose (DFX) and its corresponding bioactive conformation (Protein Data Bank code 5FX). |
Gas | Grel0 | % | Erel | EL | ENL | HOC(H2)C(![]() |
OCC![]() |
O![]() |
C(![]() |
(H)OCCO(H) | HOCC(F) | OCCF |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
a Grel0 = relative standard Gibbs free energy; Erel = conformational relative energy; EL = Lewis-type energy; ENL = non-Lewis-type energy. | ||||||||||||
1g | 0.0 | 23 | 0.0 | 9.6 | 9.6 | −16.8 | 12.2 | 9.4 | −13.4 | 57.9 | 76.2 | 173.4 |
2g | 0.2 | 16 | 1.3 | 10.2 | 8.9 | 9.6 | −4.8 | −6.3 | 2.1 | −166.4 | −55.3 | 62.2 |
3g | 0.4 | 11 | 1.0 | 5.9 | 4.9 | 4.0 | −1.7 | 174.7 | 84.0 | 52.3 | −51.0 | 56.8 |
4g | 0.5 | 10 | 0.1 | 7.5 | 7.4 | 69.8 | 159.2 | −11.1 | 6.2 | −171.3 | −53.5 | 60.1 |
5g | 0.8 | 6 | 1.6 | 1.6 | 0.0 | −1.2 | 0.6 | 176.7 | 164.2 | −48.8 | −56.1 | 57.7 |
6g | 1.0 | 4 | 1.5 | 12.3 | 10.8 | −16.6 | 10.8 | 101.6 | 5.1 | 74.9 | −46.9 | 60.0 |
7g | 1.1 | 4 | 1.5 | 8.7 | 7.2 | 4.1 | −1.7 | 177.6 | −172.9 | 48.6 | 81.7 | −73.5 |
8g | 1.3 | 3 | 1.6 | 6.2 | 4.6 | −2.9 | 1.5 | 172.6 | 153.8 | −42.2 | 40.7 | −54.2 |
9g | 1.3 | 3 | 1.6 | 15.9 | 14.3 | −18.0 | 12.1 | 10.1 | −13.5 | 66.7 | 64.8 | 65.2 |
10g | 1.3 | 3 | 2.4 | 3.9 | 1.5 | 0.9 | −3.0 | −159.3 | 83.1 | 51.9 | −145.1 | 178.8 |
11g | 1.5 | 2 | 2.4 | 3.1 | 0.7 | 1.7 | −3.6 | −151.5 | 81.9 | 53.4 | −148.7 | 179.0 |
12g | 1.6 | 2 | 0.5 | 9.9 | 8.4 | −55.5 | 156.9 | −110.7 | 48.1 | 70.9 | −51.5 | 57.8 |
13g | 1.7 | 1 | 3.3 | 4.6 | 1.3 | 5.4 | −1.8 | 177.7 | −133.4 | 50.9 | 73.6 | 175.7 |
14g | 1.8 | 1 | 2.1 | 16.1 | 14.0 | 2.7 | −2.9 | −171.9 | 83.1 | −163.5 | 76.0 | −176.5 |
15g | 1.8 | 1 | 2.2 | 3.0 | 0.8 | −9.0 | 6.2 | −105.9 | 82.2 | 72.6 | −166.3 | 176.9 |
![]() |
||||||||||||
Water | ||||||||||||
1w | 0.0 (3.3) | 34 (0) | 0.1 | 9.6 | 9.5 | −18.9 | 10.7 | 7.2 | −10.5 | 64.1 | 67.6 | 63.2 |
2w | 0.7 (1.4) | 10 (7) | 0.1 | 7.3 | 7.2 | −19.1 | 11.0 | 5.8 | −8.2 | 59.7 | 72.9 | 174.9 |
3w | 0.7 (1.7) | 10 (4) | 0.7 | 5.0 | 4.3 | 2.0 | −0.7 | 176.9 | 84.5 | 54.4 | −53.2 | 59.8 |
4w | 0.9 (2.3) | 7 (2) | 1.7 | 9.2 | 7.5 | 6.9 | −3.2 | −7.0 | −165.7 | 176.9 | −59.2 | 65.7 |
5w | 0.9 (2.3) | 7 (2) | 0.6 | 7.4 | 6.8 | −18.3 | 9.7 | 0.9 | 4.5 | 71.1 | −59.2 | 62.3 |
6w | 1.2 (2.1) | 4 (2) | 0.8 | 6.2 | 5.4 | −0.8 | 0.6 | −176.3 | −170.5 | 50.3 | 78.6 | −69.1 |
7w | 1.3 (4.9) | 4 (0) | 1.3 | 1.7 | 0.4 | 2.1 | −1.0 | −176.6 | −125.7 | 75.7 | −48.9 | 60.6 |
8w | 1.4 (5.1) | 3 (0) | 1.4 | 6.5 | 5.1 | −16.8 | 9.4 | −0.5 | 7.6 | 68.1 | −74.0 | 177.4 |
9w | 1.5 (0.0) | 3 (77) | 1.5 | 4.2 | 2.7 | 1.2 | −0.3 | 179.0 | 83.5 | 53.5 | −71.0 | 178.3 |
10w | 1.6 (5.5) | 2 (0) | 0.7 | 13.0 | 12.3 | 6.4 | −3.7 | −2.0 | 2.6 | −170.3 | −161.0 | −62.6 |
11w | 1.7 (3.1) | 2 (0) | 0.5 | 10.1 | 9.6 | 68.2 | 159.7 | −11.4 | 10.5 | −168.6 | −57.7 | 64.8 |
12w | 1.7 (4.4) | 2 (0) | 1.6 | 3.3 | 1.7 | −80.6 | 159.0 | −7.0 | 13.9 | 70.1 | −60.2 | 62.3 |
13w | 1.7 (5.5) | 2 (0) | 1.3 | 14.2 | 12.9 | 0.5 | 1.0 | −177.9 | −102.8 | −75.8 | 83.2 | −66.1 |
14w | 1.8 (1.7) | 2 (4) | 1.3 | 4.4 | 3.1 | 2.0 | −0.7 | 176.8 | 84.5 | 54.4 | −53.2 | 59.8 |
15w | 1.9 (4.6) | 1 (0) | 1.5 | 5.5 | 4.0 | −1.1 | 1.6 | 165.8 | 156.6 | −45.2 | 47.1 | −59.3 |
16w | 2.0 (3.6) | 1 (0) | 0.0 | 14.1 | 14.1 | 68.8 | 153.4 | −5.6 | 6.9 | 169.9 | −66.6 | −59.1 |
17w | 2.0 (5.0) | 1 (0) | 1.9 | 1.9 | 0.0 | −1.2 | 1.8 | 165.8 | 157.9 | −42.3 | −79.8 | 64.8 |
18w | 2.1 (4.6) | 1 (0) | 2.0 | 3.1 | 1.1 | 2.3 | −0.4 | 171.8 | −90.5 | 66.2 | −62.2 | 63.6 |
19w | 2.4 (6.1) | 1 (0) | 0.4 | 21.4 | 21.0 | −89.7 | 178.2 | −6.1 | 5.0 | −156.0 | −43.0 | −63.0 |
20w | 2.5 (5.0) | 1 (0) | 2.0 | 3.0 | 1.1 | 19.35 | −11.80 | −35.74 | 39.39 | −55.17 | 172.70 | −71.94 |
5FX | 175.0 | 4.4 | 167.1 | −149.1 | 52.2 | 120.1 | 65.8 |
According to NBO analysis (Table 1 and Fig. 2), the most populated conformer in the gas phase 1g (23%) exhibits a network of hydrogen bonds involving hydroxyl groups and the carbonyl oxygen of DFX . According to QTAIM analysis, a single bond path between C
O and O–H was observed in 1g and characterized as a weak hydrogen bond, since both ∇2ρ(r) and H(r) are positive22 (Table 2). Hydrogen bonds also appear in the other conformers and can include the fluorine atom. However, other interactions lead to the greater stabilization of 1g relative to the remaining conformers; the full electronic energy of a system can be decomposed into non-Lewis (electron delocalization) and Lewis-type (steric and electrostatic effects) interactions using NBO analysis and, according to Table 1, conformer 1g combines high stabilization due to hyperconjugation and low repulsive effects. Table 3 shows that, in addition to hydrogen bond
, the gauche effect arisen from the gauche arrangement between electronegative substituents allows important antiperiplanar hyperconjugative interactions (especially
).
![]() | ||
Fig. 2 Crystal structure and the optimized geometries of DFX in the gas phase and implicit water. The corresponding hydrogen bonds obtained by NBO analysis (![]() |
Gas | ρ(r) | ∇2ρ(r) | H(r) |
---|---|---|---|
a Electron density – ρ(r), Laplacian of the electron density – ∇2ρ(r), and total energy density at the bond critical point – H(r). | |||
1g | +0.025374 | +0.107403 | +0.002732 |
2g a/b | +0.022415/+0.026278 | +0.101106/+0.109487 | +0.003063/+0.002569 |
3g | +0.023248 | +0.101158 | +0.002874 |
4g a/b | +0.026865/+0.027738 | +0.110218/+0.107869 | +0.002475/+0.001740 |
5g a/b | +0.023737/+0.020795 | +0.101876/+0.095271 | +0.002773/+0.003071 |
6g a/b | +0.025111 | +0.106653 | +0.002777 |
7g a/b | +0.023391/+0.017242 | +0.101689/+0.066264 | +0.002877/+0.000979 |
8g a/b | +0.023979/+0.023399 | +0.102157/+0.093128 | +0.002725/+0.002101 |
9g | +0.025217 | +0.106525 | +0.002722 |
10g | +0.023744 | +0.101565 | +0.002746 |
11g | +0.023546 | +0.101048 | +0.002759 |
12g a/b | +0.029000/+0.025460 | +0.100256/+0.098074 | +0.000656/+0.001851 |
13g | +0.023590 | +0.102021 | +0.002854 |
14g a/b/c | +0.023293/+0.021372/+0.019610 | +0.100444/+0.074582/+0.075621 | +0.002747/+0.001342/+0.001009 |
15g a/b | +0.021967/+0.016586 | +0.098853/+0.058660 | +0.002986/+0.001238 |
![]() |
|||
Water | |||
1w | +0.023990 | +0.105896 | +0.002748 |
2w | +0.025530 | +0.107701 | +0.002702 |
3w | +0.024078 | +0.101946 | +0.002712 |
4w | +0.025306 | +0.106788 | +0.002707 |
5w a/b | +0.023050/+0.025495 | +0.100900/+0.107370 | +0.002897/+0.002668 |
6w a/b | +0.024152/+0.014591 | +0.102167/+0.056479 | +0.002706/+0.000971 |
7w | +0.024449 | +0.102938 | +0.002677 |
8w | +0.024754 | +0.105767 | +0.002796 |
9w | +0.024544 | +0.103050 | +0.002656 |
10w a/b | +0.023425/+0.026389 | +0.101164/+0.109546 | +0.002807/+0.002544 |
11w a/b | +0.026365/+0.030194 | +0.108854/+0.115734 | +0.002536/+0.001356 |
12w | +0.025323 | +0.106211 | +0.002691 |
13w a/b | +0.024118/+0.022593 | +0.101867/+0.081293 | +0.002657/+0.001642 |
14w | +0.024192 | +0.102243 | +0.002696 |
15w a/b | +0.024560/+0.022415 | +0.103014/+0.089973 | +0.002641/+0.002163 |
16w a/b | +0.024189/+0.023866 | +0.102220/+0.099989 | +0.002695/+0.002483 |
17w a/b | +0.027762/+0.031069 | +0.112484/+0.119232 | +0.002350/+0.001245 |
18w | +0.024320 | +0.102572 | +0.002690 |
19w | +0.024322 | +0.102578 | +0.002690 |
20w | +0.029483/+0.035355 | +0.119041/+0.124195 | +0.002233/−0.000144 |
A conformer with high energy in the gas phase became the most stable geometry in implicit water (1w) with 34% population, and it differs from 1g only by the O–C–C–F dihedral angle. Indeed, the six most stable conformations in the gas phase appear within the top ten preferential conformations in solution, such as conformer 2w (with a geometry similar to 1g) as the second most stable (10%). Again, in addition to intramolecular hydrogen bond, a balance between steric effect and hypercojugative interactions takes place and governs the conformational equilibrium of DFX in an enzyme-free environment (Tables 1–3 and Fig. 2). Surprisingly, 1g and 1w do not match the crystal structure of DFX, which is the ligand bioconformation attached to the active site of xylulokinase.1
In order to compare the optimized geometries with the experimental crystal structure, only the O–C–CO, O
C–C–O(H), (H)O–C–C–O(H) and O–C–C–F dihedral angles were taken into account, since the coordinates of the hydroxyl hydrogens are not experimentally accurate. The bioconformation is reasonably consistent only with 3g (11% in the gas) and 3w, 7w and 18w (summing up 15% in implicit water). Consequently, the intramolecular forces ruling the optimized geometries are certainly not the same as those governing the bioactive conformation of DFX. In order to check the possible intermolecular interactions that overcome the intramolecular ones as driving forces of the bioconformation of DFX, docking studies were performed including all optimized geometries inside the bioactive site of xylulokinase.
The docking results were validated after finding the highest intermolecular (ligand–protein) interaction for the bioconformation of DFX (PDB code 5FX) in the active site of xylulokinase (PDB code 4BC5), which is −78.8 kcal mol−1. Conformers 3g and 3w were the most stable optimized structures in the biological target (Table 4), with intermolecular interaction energies of −76.6 and −76.0 kcal mol−1, respectively, more than 2 kcal mol−1 less stable than 5FX. Nevertheless, 3g and 3w, together with 7w and 18w, exhibited high stabilization in the active site of xylulokinase in comparison to most of the optimized geometries, since they have more structural similarity to 5FX. The preferential enzyme-free conformations 1g and 1w interact attractively with the active site of xylulokinase (−31.1 and −39.8 kcal mol−1, respectively), but they are far less stable than the bioconformation in the protein, revealing the important role of enzyme fit over intramolecular interactions for the conformer stabilization in a biological medium. Actually, many other enzyme-free conformations exhibit more favoring ligand–enzyme interaction than 1g and 1w, as a special consequence of more effective hydrogen bonds between ligand and amino acid residues in the enzyme active site. For instance, Fig. 3 compares the main hydrogen bond interactions experienced by the bioconformation 5FX and the optimized conformers 1g and 1w, in order to show the probable cause of conformer stabilization in the biological environment.
Conformer | Eligand–protein | Conformer | Eligand–protein |
---|---|---|---|
a The interaction energy for the remaining optimized conformers were all less stabilizing than −78.8 kcal mol−1 (the Eligand–protein for 5FX). | |||
1g | −31.1 | 1w | −39.8 |
2g | 9.1 | 2w | −33.7 |
3g | −76.3 | 3w | −76.0 |
4g | 8.2 | 4w | −35.6 |
5g | −48.0 | 5w | 9.4 |
6g | −33.2 | 6w | −72.7 |
7g | −74.4 | 7w | −60.7 |
8g | −10.8 | 8w | −39.2 |
9g | −39.2 | 9w | −60.7 |
10g | −55.0 | 10w | −4.7 |
11g | −53.9 | 11w | 9.3 |
12g | −64.0 | 12w | −33.6 |
13g | −67.8 | 13w | −42.0 |
14g | −31.1 | 14w | −75.4 |
15g | −45.9 | 15w | −10.0 |
16w | −47.7 | ||
17w | −2.8 | ||
18w | −73.2 | ||
19w | −73.2 | ||
20w | 0.6 |
![]() | ||
Fig. 3 Conformers 5FX, 1g and 1w docked inside the active site of xylulokinase. Hydrogen bonds with amino acid residues are shown, predominantly in 5FX. |
The stronger effect of intermolecular ligand–protein interactions over intramolecular hydrogen bonds and hyperconjugation as driving force of the conformer stabilization in a biological medium suggests that conformations obtained in an enzyme-free environment should be used with caution in conformation-dependent QSAR methods. Most 3D-QSAR methods use conformational screening and structure alignment rules that do not consider the biological target. Consequently, the chemical–biological interpretation obtained from molecular descriptors derived from optimized conformations (those not consistent with the bioconformation) can be inappropriate and inaccurate.
Footnote |
† Electronic supplementary information (ESI) available: Tables with energies and geometric parameters, and standard coordinates. See DOI: 10.1039/c6ra23423b |
This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry 2016 |