Adam Pecina

The Dominant Role of Chalcogen Bonding in the Crystal Packing of 2D/3D Aromatics

The chalcogen bond is a nonclassical σ-hole-based noncovalent interaction with emerging applications in medicinal chemistry and material science. It is found in organic compounds, including 2D aromatics, but has so far never been observed in 3D aromatic inorganic boron hydrides. Thiaboranes, harboring a sulfur heteroatom in the icosahedral cage, are candidates for the formation of chalcogen bonds. The phenyl-substituted thiaborane, synthesized and crystalized in this study, forms sulfur⋅⋅⋅π type chalcogen bonds. Quantum chemical analysis revealed that these interactions are considerably stronger than both in their organic counterparts and in the known halogen bond. The reason is the existence of a highly positive σ-hole on the positively charged sulfur atom. This discovery expands the possibilities of applying substituted boron clusters in crystal engineering and drug design.

QM/MM calculations reveal the different nature of the interaction of two carborane-based sulfamide inhibitors of human carbonic anhydrase II.

The crystal structures of two novel carborane-sulfamide inhibitors in the complex with human carbonic anhydrase II (hCAII) have been studied using QM/MM calculations. Even though both complexes possess the strongly interacting sulfamide···zinc ion motif, the calculations have revealed the different nature of binding of the carborane parts of the inhibitors. The neutral closo-carborane cage was bound to hCAII mainly via dispersion interactions and formed only very weak dihydrogen bonds. On the contrary, the monoanionic nido cage interacted with the protein mainly via electrostatic interactions. It formed short and strong dihydrogen bonds (stabilization of up to 4.2 kcal/mol; H···H distances of 1.7 Å) with the polar hydrogen of protein NH2 groups. This type of binding is unique among all of the classical organic and inorganic inhibitors of hCAII. Virtual glycine scanning allowed us to identify the amino-acid side chains, which made important contributions to ligand-binding energies. In summary, using QM/MM calculations, we have provided a detailed understanding of the differences between the interactions of two carborane sulfamides, identified the amino acids of hCAII with which they interact, and thus paved the way for the computer-aided rational design of selective boron-cluster-containing hCAII inhibitors.

Chalcogen and Pnicogen Bonds in Complexes of Neutral Icosahedral and Bicapped Square-Antiprismatic Heteroboranes

A systematic quantum mechanical study of σ-hole (chalcogen, pnicogen, and halogen) bonding in neutral experimentally known closo-heteroboranes is performed. Chalcogens and pnicogens are incorporated in the borane cage, whereas halogens are considered as exo-substituents of dicarbaboranes. The chalcogen and pnicogen atoms in the heteroborane cages have partial positive charge and thus more positive σ-holes. Consequently, these heteroboranes form very strong chalcogen and pnicogen bonds. Halogen atoms in dicarbaboranes also have a highly positive σ-hole, but only in the case of C-bonded halogen atoms. In such cases, the halogen bond of heteroboranes is also strong and comparable to halogen bonds in organic compounds with several electron-withdrawing groups being close to the halogen atom involved in the halogen bond.

Characteristics of a σ-Hole and the Nature of a Halogen Bond.

The nature of halogen bonding in 128 complexes was investigated using advanced quantum mechanical calculations. First, isolated halogen donors were studied and their σ-holes were described in terms of size and magnitude. Later, both partners in the complex were considered and their interaction was described in terms of DFT-SAPT decomposition. The whole set of complexes under study was split into two categories on the basis of their stabilisation energy. The first subset with 38 complexes possesses stabilisation energies in the range 7-32 kcal/mol, while the second subset with 90 complexes has stabilisation energies smaller than 7 kcal/mol. The first subset is characterised by small intermolecular distances (less than 2.5 Å) and a significant contraction of van der Waals (vdW) distance (sum of vdW radii). Here the polarisation/electrostatic energy is dominant, mostly followed by induction and dispersion energies. The importance of induction energy reflects the charge-transfer character of the respective halogen bonds. Intermolecular distances in the second subset are large and the respective contraction of vdW distance upon the formation of a halogen bond is much smaller. Here the dispersion energy is mostly dominant, followed by polarisation and induction energies. Considering the whole set of complexes, we conclude that the characteristic features of their halogen bonds arise from the concerted action of polarisation and dispersion energies and neither of these energies can be considered as dominant. Finally, the magnitude of the σ-hole and DFT-SAPT stabilisation energy correlates only weakly within the whole set of complexes.

Carborane-Based Carbonic Anhydrase Inhibitors: Insight into CAII/CAIX Specificity from a High-Resolution Crystal Structure, Modeling, and Quantum Chemical Calculations

Carborane-based compounds are promising lead structures for development of inhibitors of carbonic anhydrases (CAs). Here, we report structural and computational analysis applicable to structure-based design of carborane compounds with selectivity toward the cancer-specific CAIX isoenzyme. We determined the crystal structure of CAII in complex with 1-methylenesulfamide-1,2-dicarba-closo-dodecaborane at 1.0 Å resolution and used this structure to model the 1-methylenesulfamide-1,2-dicarba-closo-dodecaborane interactions with CAIX. A virtual glycine scan revealed the contributions of individual residues to the energy of binding of 1-methylenesulfamide-1,2-dicarba-closo-dodecaborane to CAII and CAIX, respectively.

Superior Performance of the SQM/COSMO Scoring Functions in Native Pose Recognition of Diverse Protein–Ligand Complexes in Cognate Docking

General and reliable description of structures and energetics in protein–ligand (PL) binding using the docking/scoring methodology has until now been elusive. We address this urgent deficiency of scoring functions (SFs) by the systematic development of corrected semiempirical quantum mechanical (SQM) methods, which correctly describe all types of noncovalent interactions and are fast enough to treat systems of thousands of atoms. Two most accurate SQM methods, PM6-D3H4X and SCC-DFTB3-D3H4X, are coupled with the conductor-like screening model (COSMO) implicit solvation model in so-called “SQM/COSMO” SFs and have shown unique recognition of native ligand poses in cognate docking in four challenging PL systems, including metalloprotein. Here, we apply the two SQM/COSMO SFs to 17 diverse PL complexes and compare their performance with four widely used classical SFs (Glide XP, AutoDock4, AutoDock Vina, and UCSF Dock). We observe superior performance of the SQM/COSMO SFs and identify challenging systems. This method, due to its generality, comparability across the chemical space, and lack of need for any system-specific parameters, gives promise of becoming, after comprehensive large-scale testing in the near future, a useful computational tool in structure-based drug design and serving as a reference method for the development of other SFs.

Noncovalent Interactions of Heteroboranes

This chapter deals with noncovalent interactions between heteroboranes and their various organic or biomolecular partners. At first, the physical essence of noncovalent interactions in general is discussed. Focusing then on boron clusters, their contacts are discussed based on the unusual electron distribution within the boron hydride cages and especially around the heteroatoms (i.e. non-boron atoms incorporated in the cluster framework) or the substituents replacing the terminal hydrogens. The bare (i.e. not linked to hydrogen) heteroatoms within the cage bear prevailingly a partial positive charge. This results in an opposite direction of the compound dipole moments (as proved experimentally), contrary to what would be expected from the electronegativity concept.

Atomic resolution crystal structure of Sapp2p, a secreted aspartic protease from Candida parapsilosis.

The virulence of the Candida pathogens is enhanced by the production of secreted aspartic proteases, which therefore represent possible targets for drug design. Here, the crystal structure of the secreted aspartic protease Sapp2p from Candida parapsilosis was determined. Sapp2p was isolated from its natural source and crystallized in complex with pepstatin A, a classical aspartic protease inhibitor. The atomic resolution of 0.83 Å allowed the protonation states of the active-site residues to be inferred. A detailed comparison of the structure of Sapp2p with the structure of Sapp1p, the most abundant C. parapsilosis secreted aspartic protease, was performed. The analysis, which included advanced quantum-chemical interaction-energy calculations, uncovered molecular details that allowed the experimentally observed equipotent inhibition of both isoenzymes by pepstatin A to be rationalized.