Antonio Francés-Monerris

Theoretical study of the hydroxyl radical addition to uracil and photochemistry of the formed U6OH• adduct.

Hydroxyl radical ((•)OH) is produced in biological systems by external or endogenous agents. It can damage DNA/RNA by attacking pyrimidine nucleobases through the addition to the C5═C6 double bond. The adduct resulting from the attachment at the C5 position prevails in the experimental measurements, although the reasons for this preference remain unclear. The first aim of this work is therefore to shed light on the comprehension of this important process. Thus, the thermal (•)OH addition to the C5═C6 double bond of uracil has been studied theoretically by using DFT, MP2, and the multiconfigurational CASPT2//CASSCF methodologies. The in-vacuo results obtained with the latter protocol plus the analysis of solvent effects support the experimental observation. A significant lower barrier height is predicted for the C5 pathway with respect to that of the C6 route. In contrast to the C5 adduct, the C6 adduct is able to absorb visible light. Hence, the second aim of the work is to study the photochemistry of this species using the CASPT2//CASSCF methodology within the framework of the photochemical reaction path approach (PRPA). The nonradiative decay to the ground state of this compound has been characterized. A photoreactive character is predicted for the C6 adduct in the excited states according to the presence of excited-state minima along the main decay channel. Finally, a new mechanism of photodissociation has been explored, which implies the photoinduced regeneration of the canonical nucleobase by irradiating with visible light, being therefore relevant in RNA protection against damage by reactive oxygen species.

Communication: Electronic UV-Vis transient spectra of the ·OH reaction products of uracil, thymine, cytosine, and 5,6-dihydrouracil by using the complete active space self-consistent field second-order perturbation (CASPT2//CASSCF) theory

Addition of ∙OH radicals to pyrimidine nucleobases is a common reaction in DNA/RNA damage by reactive oxygen species. Among several experimental techniques, transient absorption spectroscopy has been during the last decades used to characterize such compounds. Discrepancies have however appeared in the assignment of the adduct or adducts responsible for the reported transient absorption UV-Vis spectra. In order to get an accurate assignment of the transient spectra and a unified description of the absorption properties of the ∙OH reaction products of pyrimidines, a systematic complete active space self-consistent field second-order perturbation (CASPT2//CASSCF) theory study has been carried out on the uracil, thymine, and cytosine ∙OH addition adducts, as well as on the 5,6-dihydrouracil hydrogen abstraction products. With the obtained findings, the C5OH contributions to the lowest-energy band can be finally discarded. Instead, a bright (2)(π2) state of the C6OH adducts is determined to be the main responsible in all compounds for the absorption band in the Vis range.

Complete-active-space second-order perturbation theory (CASPT2//CASSCF) study of the dissociative electron attachment in canonical DNA nucleobases caused by low-energy electrons (0-3 eV)

Low-energy (0-3 eV) ballistic electrons originated during the irradiation of biological material can interact with DNA/RNA nucleobases yielding transient-anion species which undergo decompositions. Since the discovery that these reactions can eventually lead to strand breaking of the DNA chains, great efforts have been dedicated to their study. The main fragmentation at the 0-3 eV energy range is the ejection of a hydrogen atom from the specific nitrogen positions. In the present study, the methodological approach introduced in a previous work on uracil [I. González-Ramírez et al., J. Chem. Theory Comput. 8, 2769-2776 (2012)] is employed to study the DNA canonical nucleobases fragmentations of N-H bonds induced by low-energy electrons. The approach is based on minimum energy path and linear interpolation of internal coordinates computations along the N-H dissociation channels carried out at the complete-active-space self-consistent field//complete-active-space second-order perturbation theory level. On the basis of the calculated theoretical quantities, new assignations for the adenine and cytosine anion yield curves are provided. In addition, the π1 (-) and π2 (-) states of the pyrimidine nucleobases are expected to produce the temporary anions at electron energies close to 1 and 2 eV, respectively. Finally, the present theoretical results do not allow to discard neither the dipole-bound nor the valence-bound mechanisms in the range of energies explored, suggesting that both possibilities may coexist in the experiments carried out with the isolated nucleobases.

Assessment of the Potential Energy Hypersurfaces in Thymine within Multiconfigurational Theory: CASSCF vs. CASPT2

The present study provides new insights into the topography of the potential energy hypersurfaces (PEHs) of the thymine nucleobase in order to rationalize its main ultrafast photochemical decay paths by employing two methodologies based on the complete active space self-consistent field (CASSCF) and the complete active space second-order perturbation theory (CASPT2) methods: (i) CASSCF optimized structures and energies corrected with the CASPT2 method at the CASSCF geometries and (ii) CASPT2 optimized geometries and energies. A direct comparison between these strategies is drawn, yielding qualitatively similar results within a static framework. A number of analyses are performed to assess the accuracy of these different computational strategies under study based on a variety of numerical thresholds and optimization methods. Several basis sets and active spaces have also been calibrated to understand to what extent they can influence the resulting geometries and subsequent interpretation of the photochemical decay channels. The study shows small discrepancies between CASSCF and CASPT2 PEHs, displaying a shallow planar or twisted 1(ππ*) minimum, respectively, and thus featuring a qualitatively similar scenario for supporting the ultrafast bi-exponential deactivation registered in thymine upon UV-light exposure. A deeper knowledge of the PEHs at different levels of theory provides useful insight into its correct characterization and subsequent interpretation of the experimental observations. The discrepancies displayed by the different methods studied here are then discussed and framed within their potential consequences in on-the-fly non-adiabatic molecular dynamics simulations, where qualitatively diverse outcomes are expected.

Mechanism of the OH Radical Addition to Adenine from Quantum-Chemistry Determinations of Reaction Paths and Spectroscopic Tracking of the Intermediates

The OH radical is a well-known mediator in the oxidation of biological structures like DNA. Over the past decades, the precise events taking place after reaction of DNA nucleobases with OH radical have been widely investigated by the scientific community. Thirty years after the proposal of the main routes for the reaction of •OH with adenine ( Vieira , A. ; Steenken , S. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1990 , 112 , 6986 - 6994 ), the present work demonstrates that the OH radical addition to C4 position is a minor pathway. Instead, the dehydration process is mediated by the A5OH adduct. Conclusions are based on density functional theory calculations for the ground-state reactivity and highly accurate multiconfigurational computations for the excited states of the radical intermediates. The methodology has been also used to study the mechanism giving rise to the mutagens 8-oxoA and FAPyA. Taking into account the agreement between the experimental data and the theoretical results, it is concluded that addition to the C5 and C8 positions accounts for at least ∼44.5% of the total •OH reaction in water solution. Finally, the current findings suggest that hydrophobicity in the DNA/RNA surroundings facilitates the formation of 8-oxoA and FAPyA.

Regioselectivity of the OH Radical Addition to Uracil in Nucleic Acids. A Theoretical Approach Based on QM/MM Simulations

Oxidation of nucleic acids is ubiquitous in living beings under metabolic impairments and/or exposed to external agents such as radiation, pollutants, or drugs, playing a central role in the development of many diseases mediated by DNA/RNA degeneration. Great efforts have been devoted to unveil the molecular mechanisms behind the OH radical additions to the double bonds of nucleobases; however, the specific role of the biological environment remains relatively unexplored. The present contribution tackles the study of the OH radical addition to uracil from the gas phase to a full RNA macromolecule by means of quantum-chemistry methods combined with molecular dynamics simulations. It is shown that, in addition to the intrinsic reactivity of each position driven by the electronic effects, the presence of bridge water molecules intercalated into the RNA structure favors the addition to the C5 position of uracil in biological conditions. The results also suggest that diffusion of the OH radical does not play a relevant role in the regioselectivity of the reaction, which is mainly controlled at the chemical stage of the addition process.

Advances in computational photochemistry and chemiluminescence of biological and nanotechnological molecules

Recent advances (2014–2015) in computational photochemistry and chemiluminescence derive from the development of theory and from the application of state-of-the-art and new methodology to challenging electronic-structure problems. Method developments have mainly focused, first, on the improvement of approximate and cheap methods to provide a better description of non-adiabatic processes, second, on the modification of accurate methods in order to decrease the computation time and, finally, on dynamics approaches able to provide information that can be directly compared with experimental data, such as yields and lifetimes. Applications of the ab initio quantum-chemistry methods have given rise to relevant findings in distinct fields of the excited-state chemistry. We briefly summarise, in this chapter, the achievements on photochemical mechanisms and chemically-induced excited-state phenomena of interest in biology and nanotechnology.

Mechanism of excited state deactivation of indan-1-ylidene and fluoren-9-ylidene malononitriles

Herein, we report complementary computational and experimental evidence supporting the existence, for indan-1-ylidene malononitrile and fluoren-9-ylidene malononitrile, of a non-radiative decay channel involving double bond isomerisation motion. The results of UV-Vis transient absorption spectroscopy highlight that the decay takes place within hundreds of picoseconds. In order to understand the related molecular mechanism, photochemical reaction paths were computed by employing multiconfigurational quantum chemistry. The results indicate that the excited state deactivation occurs via concerted double bond twisting of the dicyanovinyl (DCV) unit coupled with a pyramidalisation of its substituted carbon. It is also shown that the observed differences in the excited state lifetimes when passing from indan-1-ylidene malononitrile to fluoren-9-ylidene are associated with the change in the topography of the conical intersection driving the decay from intermediate to sloped, respectively.

Quantum Chemistry of Excited States in Polyhedral Boranes

In this Chapter we describe the electronic structure of ground states and excited states of the two isomers of octadecaborane (22), anti- and syn-B18H22, and the new derivative of anti-B18H22, the polyhedral substituted borane 4,4′-(HS)2-anti-B18H20. A theoretical interpretation is given on the fluorescence of the anti-B18H22 isomer, and the non-radiative decay of the syn-B18H22 isomer, an unsolved problem since 1962. For the new derivative of anti-B18H22, substitution of hydrogen atoms in positions 4 and 4′ by SH groups allows the tuning of the photophysical properties in 4,4′-(HS)2-anti-B18H20, facilitating intersystem crossing from the excited singlet state to the triplet state.