Kabir M. Uddin

Comparisons of Computational and Experimental Thermochemical Properties of α-Amino Acids

This study provides comprehensive benchmark calculations for the thermochemical properties of the common α-amino acids. Calculated properties include the proton affinity, gas-phase basicity, protonation entropy, ΔH°(acid), ΔG°(acid), and enthalpies of formation for the protonated and deprotonated α-amino acids. In order to determine the performance at various levels of theory, including density functional methods and composite methods, the calculated thermochemical properties are compared to experimental results. For all the common α-amino acids investigated, the thermochemical properties computed with the Gaussian-n theories were found to be quite consistent with each other in terms of mean absolute deviation from experiment. While all Gaussian-n theory values can serve as benchmarks, we focus on the G3MP2 values as it is the least resource-intensive of the Gaussian-n theories considered.

Mechanistic study of the deamination reaction of guanine: a computational study.

The mechanism for the deamination of guanine with H(2)O, OH(-), H(2)O/OH(-) and for GuaH(+) with H(2)O has been investigated using ab initio calculations. Optimized geometries of the reactants, transition states, intermediates, and products were determined at RHF/6-31G(d), MP2/6-31G(d), B3LYP/6-31G(d), and B3LYP/6-31+G(d) levels of theory. Energies were also determined at G3MP2, G3MP2B3, G4MP2, and CBS-QB3 levels of theory. Intrinsic reaction coordinate (IRC) calculations were performed to characterize the transition states on the potential energy surface. Thermodynamic properties (ΔE, ΔH, and ΔG), activation energies, enthalpies, and Gibbs free energies of activation were also calculated for each reaction investigated. All pathways yield an initial tetrahedral intermediate and an intermediate in the last step that dissociates to products via a 1,3-proton shift. At the G3MP2 level of theory, deamination with OH(-) was found to have an activation energy barrier of 155 kJ mol(-1) compared to 187 kJ mol(-1) for the reaction with H(2)O and 243 kJ mol(-1) for GuaH(+) with H(2)O. The lowest overall activation energy, 144 kJ mol(-1) at the G3MP2 level, was obtained for the deamination of guanine with H(2)O/OH(-). Due to a lack of experimental results for guanine deamination, a comparison is made with those of cytosine, whose deamination reaction parallels that of guanine.

Computational study of the deamination of 8-oxoguanine.

Oxidation of guanine in DNA yields the nucleobase damage product 8-oxoguanine (8-oxoG), whose further oxidation gives other more stable products. In the present study, the mechanism for the deamination of 8-oxoG with H(2)O, 2H(2)O, H(2)O/OH(-), and 2H(2)O/OH(-) and for protonated 8-oxoG (8-oxoGH(+)) with H(2)O has been investigated using ab initio calculations. All structures were optimized at RHF/6-31G(d), MP2/6-31G(d), and B3LYP with the 6-31G(d), 6-31+G(d), 6-31G(d,p), 6-31+G(d,p), and 6-31++G(d.p) basis sets. Energies were determined at the G3MP2 level of theory, and solvent calculations were performed using both the polarizable continuum model (PCM) and the solvation model on density (SMD). Intrinsic reaction coordinate calculations were performed to characterize the transition states on the potential energy surface. Thermodynamic properties (ΔE, ΔH, and ΔG), activation energies, enthalpies, and Gibbs free energies of activation were also calculated for each reaction investigated. All pathways yield an initial tetrahedral intermediate and, in the final step, an intermediate that dissociates to products via a 1,3-proton shift. At the G3MP2 level of theory, deamination with H(2)O/OH(-) was found to have an overall activation energy of 187, 176, and 156 kJ mol(-1) for the gas phase, PCM, and SMD, respectively, which are ∼50 kJ mol(-1) lower than with H(2)O only. These barriers can be compared to those for the reaction of 8-oxoGH(+) with H(2)O of 248 kJ mol(-1) in the gas phase and 238 kJ mol(-1) in aqueous solution (PCM). The lowest overall activation energies (G3MP2) are for the deamination of 8-oxoG with 2H(2)O/OH(-), 134 kJ mol(-1) in the gas phase and 129 kJ mol(-1) with PCM.