Yuichi Harano

Theoretical study for partial molar volume of amino acids and polypeptides by the three-dimensional reference interaction site model

We calculate the partial molar volume (PMV) of 20 amino acids in aqueous solution at infinite dilution by using the Kirkwood–Buff equation and the three-dimensional reference interaction site model (3D-RISM) integral equation theory for molecular liquids. As compared to the conventional, one-dimensional (1D-RISM) approach, the results exhibit drastic improvement for the quantitative agreement with experiments. The deviation from the experimental data seen for the relatively large amino acids is discussed in terms of the “ideal fluctuation volume” introduced in the previous study based on the 1D-RISM. Robustness of the new approach is further demonstrated by applying it to the PMV of polyglutamic acids in aqueous solution. The method provides reasonable account for the PMV increase with the chain length, both in α-helical and extended structures, whereas the 1D-RISM approach gives an unnatural decrease of the PMV for the α helix with a complete turn of the backbone.

Theoretical study for volume changes associated with the helix-coil transition of peptides.

We calculate the partial molar volumes and their changes associated with the coil(extended)-to-helix transition of two types of peptide, glycine-oligomer and glutamic acid-oligomer, in aqueous solutions by using the Kirkwood-Buff solution theory coupled with the three-dimensional reference interaction site model (3D-RISM) theory. The volume changes associated with the transition are small and positive. The volume is analyzed by decomposing it into five contributions following the procedure proposed by Chalikian and Breslauer: the ideal volume, the van der Waals volume, the void volume, the thermal volume, and the interaction volume. The ideal volumes and the van der Waals volumes do not change appreciably upon the transition. In the both cases of glycine-peptide and glutamic acid-peptide, the changes in the void volumes are positive, while those in the thermal volumes are negative, and tend to balance those in the void volumes. The change in the interaction volume of glycine-peptide does not significantly contribute, while that of glutamic acid-peptide makes a negative contribution.

A theoretical study on a Diels–Alder reaction in ambient and supercritical water: viewing solvent effects through frontier orbitals

Solvent eAects on the endo/exo selectivity of an asymmetric Diels‐Alder reaction in ambient and supercritical water are studied by means of a combined electronic structure and liquid state theory. The target system is the cycloaddition of cyclopentadiene with methyl vinyl ketone. The rate constant and the equilibrium constant are obtained from the activation free energies and the free energy change of reaction for the two isomers. The results for the equilibrium constant are in qualitative agreement with the experimentally observed endo/exo selectivity. The relative rate constants show that the endo reaction occurs preferentially in wide range of thermodynamic conditions. DiAerence of the solvation free energy shows that endo/exo selectivity is enlarged in ambient water by hydrophobic eAect and that it disappears completely in supercritical water. The theoretical results are analyzed in the light of the frontier orbital theory in order to acquire physical insight of solvent eAects on the stereo-selectivity. ” 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Water based on a molecular model behaves like a hard-sphere solvent for a nonpolar solute when the reference interaction site model and related theories are employed.

For neutral hard-sphere solutes, we compare the reduced density profile of water around a solute g(r), solvation free energy μ, energy U, and entropy S under the isochoric condition predicted by the two theories: dielectrically consistent reference interaction site model (DRISM) and angle-dependent integral equation (ADIE) theories. A molecular model for water pertinent to each theory is adopted. The hypernetted-chain (HNC) closure is employed in the ADIE theory, and the HNC and Kovalenko-Hirata (K-H) closures are tested in the DRISM theory. We also calculate g(r), U, S, and μ of the same solute in a hard-sphere solvent whose molecular diameter and number density are set at those of water, in which case the radial-symmetric integral equation (RSIE) theory is employed. The dependences of μ, U, and S on the excluded volume and solvent-accessible surface area are analyzed using the morphometric approach (MA). The results from the ADIE theory are in by far better agreement with those from computer simulations available for g(r), U, and μ. For the DRISM theory, g(r) in the vicinity of the solute is quite high and becomes progressively higher as the solute diameter d U increases. By contrast, for the ADIE theory, it is much lower and becomes further lower as d U increases. Due to unphysically positive U and significantly larger |S|, μ from the DRISM theory becomes too high. It is interesting that μ, U, and S from the K-H closure are worse than those from the HNC closure. Overall, the results from the DRISM theory with a molecular model for water are quite similar to those from the RSIE theory with the hard-sphere solvent. Based on the results of the MA analysis, we comparatively discuss the different theoretical methods for cases where they are applied to studies on the solvation of a protein.

An accurate and efficient computation method of the hydration free energy of a large, complex molecule

The hydration free energy (HFE) is a crucially important physical quantity to discuss various chemical processes in aqueous solutions. Although an explicit-solvent computation with molecular dynamics (MD) simulations is a preferable treatment of the HFE, huge computational load has been inevitable for large, complex solutes like proteins. In the present paper, we propose an efficient computation method for the HFE. In our method, the HFE is computed as a sum of 〈UUV〉/2 (〈UUV〉 is the ensemble average of the sum of pair interaction energy between solute and water molecule) and the water reorganization term mainly reflecting the excluded volume effect. Since 〈UUV〉 can readily be computed through a MD of the system composed of solute and water, an efficient computation of the latter term leads to a reduction of computational load. We demonstrate that the water reorganization term can quantitatively be calculated using the morphometric approach (MA) which expresses the term as the linear combinations of the four geometric measures of a solute and the corresponding coefficients determined with the energy representation (ER) method. Since the MA enables us to finish the computation of the solvent reorganization term in less than 0.1 s once the coefficients are determined, the use of the MA enables us to provide an efficient computation of the HFE even for large, complex solutes. Through the applications, we find that our method has almost the same quantitative performance as the ER method with substantial reduction of the computational load.