N-arylnaphthylamines as inhibitors of human immunodeficiency virus integrase - lens epithelium-derived growth factor interactions: theoretical studies.

Presented work reports a comprehensive theoretical study on the inhibitory nature of N-arylnaphthylamines in Human Immunodeficiency Virus Integrase (HIV IN) - Lens Epithelium-Derived Growth Factor (LEDGF/p75) complexes. Factors influencing the inhibition efficiency in AlphaScreen% assay are evaluated and explained through the structure- and ligand-based studies; including molecular docking, molecular dynamics calculations, and quantitative structure-activity relationship (QSAR) approach. It has been shown that N-arylnaphthylamines possess a wide variety of binding poses. Three QSAR models have been developed using structural descriptors and descriptors derived from docking calculations. The activity of untested N-arylnaphthylamines have been predicted using the most successful model. Proposed here technique could become a useful tool for ligand selection, accelerating the development of a new generation of anti-HIV medications. [Formula: see text] Communicated by Ramaswamy H. Sarma.

QSPR modeling of optical rotation of amino acids using specific quantum chemical descriptors.

Many chemical phenomena occur in solution. Different solvents can change the optical activity of chiral molecules. The optical rotation angles of solutes of 75 amino acids in dimethylformamide, water and methanol were analyzed using the quantitative structure-activity relationships approach. For an accurate description of chirality, we used specific quantum chemical descriptors, which reflect the properties of a chiral center, and continuous symmetry measures. The set of specific quantum chemical descriptors for atoms located near the chiral center, such as Mulliken charges, the sum of Mulliken charges on an atom (with the hydrogen charges summed up with the adjacent non-hydrogen atoms), and nuclear magnetic resoncance tensors was applied. To represent solvent effects, we used mixture-like structural simplex descriptors and quantum chemical descriptors obtained for structures optimized for specified solvent using PBE1PBE/6-31G** level of theory with the polarizable continuum model. Multiple linear regression, M5P, and locally weighted learning techniques were used to achieve accurate predictions. The specific quantum chemical descriptors proposed here demonstrated high specificity in the majority of the developed models and established direct quantitative structure-property relationships.

Origin of Substituent Effect on Tautomeric Behavior of 1,2,4-Triazole Derivatives: Combined Spectroscopic and Theoretical Study.

The reaction of 2-aryl-[1,2,4]triazolo[1,5-c]quinazolines with nucleophilic reagents (hydrazine hydrate, sodium hydroxide, sodium methoxide, hydrochloric acid) under acidic conditions leads to formation of compounds that tend to tautomerize. The products of the transformation are distinguished by the position (ortho-, meta-, para-) of the OCH3 group in the aryl moiety. To assign their structures we used the combined approach: experiment and theoretical modeling. The procedure included calculation of the relative stability for possible tautomers, simulation of UV/vis spectra for the most stable forms, and comparison of the resulting curves with the experimental spectral data taking into account the Boltzmann weighting. Through computations, we showed that the orientation of OCH3 substituent remarkably impacts on the tautomeric behavior of triazoles. In the case of ortho-OCH3 it is controlled by formation of the intramolecular hydrogen bond while for meta- and para- derivatives the degree of conjugation plays the decisive role. In order to balance the accuracy and cost of calculations we evaluated the performance of selected DFT methods and 6-31G*, 6-311++G**, and STO##-3Gel basis sets. The last one is a physically justified basis set previously constructed in our group, and its combination with PBE1PBE approach is shown to be the best choice for UV/vis simulations in the frame of the current research.

The performance of the new 6-31G(##) basis set: molecular structures and vibrational frequencies of transition metal carbonyls.

The performance of the newly proposed 6-31G(##) basis set for calculating the equilibrium structure and vibrational frequencies of transition metal carbonyl complexes has been studied at the HF and DFT levels of theory. The 6-31G(##) basis set has been constructed by augmentation of the 6-31G basis set by diffuse and polarization functions, which are generated from the corresponding 6-31G basis AOs response functions obtained in the frame of propagator approach. The predicted values of bond distances and vibrational frequencies for the title compounds are in good agreement with the experimental data. The relative energies and HOMO-LUMO gaps were also estimated for the series of MCO complexes.