Search results for "Nucleobase"
showing 10 items of 69 documents
How Proximal Nucleobases Regulate the Catalytic Activity of G-Quadruplex/Hemin DNAzymes
2018
International audience; G-quadruplexes (G4s) are versatile catalytic DNAs when combined with hemin. Despite the repertoire of catalytically competent G4/hemin complexes studied so far, little is known about the detailed catalytic mechanism of these biocatalysts. Herein, we have carried out an in-depth analysis of the hemin binding site within the G4/hemin catalysts, providing the porphyrinic cofactor with a controlled nucleotidic environment. We intensively assessed the position-dependent catalytic enhancement in model reactions and found that proximal nucleobases enhance the catalytic ability of the G4/hemin complexes. Our results allow for revisiting the mechanism of the G4/hemin-based ca…
Molecular recognition of nucleotides in water by scorpiand-type receptors based on nucleobase discrimination.
2014
Abstract: The detection of nucleotides is of crucial impor-tance because they are the basic building blocks of nucleicacids. Scorpiand-based polyamine receptors functionalizedwith pyridine or anthracene units are able to form stablecomplexes with nucleotides in water, based on coulombic,p–p stacking, and hydrogen-bonding interactions. This be-havior has been rationalized by means of an explorationwith NMR spectroscopy and DFT calculations. Binding con-stants were determined by potentiometry. Fluorescencespectroscopy studies have revealed the potential of these re-ceptors as sensors to effectively and selectively distinguishguanosine-5’-triphosphate (GTP) from adenosine-5’-triphos-phate (ATP…
Ab initio determination of the electron affinities of DNA and RNA nucleobases
2008
High-level quantum-chemical ab initio coupled-cluster and multiconfigurational perturbation methods have been used to compute the vertical and adiabatic electron affinities of the five canonical DNA and RNA nucleobases: uracil, thymine, cytosine, adenine, and guanine. The present results aim for the accurate determination of the intrinsic electron acceptor properties of the isolated nucleic acid bases as described by their electron affinities, establishing an overall set of theoretical reference values at a level not reported before and helping to rule out less reliable theoretical and experimental data and to calibrate theoretical strategies. Daniel.Roca@uv.es Manuela.Merchan@uv.es Luis.Se…
First-principles characterization of the singlet excited state manifold in DNA/RNA nucleobases
2020
An extensive theoretical characterization of the singlet excited state manifold of the five canonical DNA/RNA nucleobases (thymine, cytosine, uracil, adenine and guanine) in gas-phase is carried out with time-dependent density functional theory (TD-DFT) and restricted active space second-order perturbation theory (RASPT2) approaches. Both ground state and excited state absorptions are analyzed and compared between these different theoretical approaches, assessing the performance of the hybrid B3LYP and CAM-B3LYP (long-range corrected) functionals with respect to the RASPT2 reference. By comparing the TD-DFT estimates with our reference for high-lying excited states, we are able to narrow do…
Are the five natural DNA/RNA base monomers a good choice from natural selection?
2009
In order to prevent the damaging effects of sun radiation in the genetic material, its constituent chromophores, the five natural DNA/RNA nucleobases cytosine, thymine, uracil, adenine, and guanine, should be able to efficiently dissipate absorbed radiation, UV specifically, avoiding as much as possible photoreactions leading to lesions. It has been established experimentally and theoretically that efficient internal conversion channels, still open and relevant in the oligomer-stacked strands, exist in the monomers allowing an effective waste of the initial energy. Previous evidences cannot explain, however, why minor differences in the molecular structure modify drastically the photochemis…
Modelling Photoionisations in Tautomeric DNA Nucleobase Derivatives 7H-Adenine and 7H-Guanine: Ultrafast Decay and Photostability
2021
The study of radiation effects in DNA is a multidisciplinary endeavour, connecting the physical, chemical and biological sciences. Despite being mostly filtered by the ozone layer, sunlight radiation is still expected to (photo)ionise DNA in sizeable yields, triggering an electron removal process and the formation of potentially reactive cationic species. In this manuscript, photoionisation decay channels of important DNA tautomeric derivatives, 7H-adenine and 7H-guanine, are characterised with accurate CASSCF/XMS-CASPT2 theoretical methods. These simulation techniques place the onset of ionisation for 7H-adenine and 7H-guanine on average at 8.98 and 8.43 eV, in line with recorded experimen…
ChemInform Abstract: Excitation of Nucleobases from a Computational Perspective I: Reaction Paths
2016
The main intrinsic photochemical events in nucleobases can be described on theoretical grounds within the realm of non-adiabatic computational photochemistry. From a static standpoint, the photochemical reaction path approach (PRPA), through the computation of the respective minimum energy path (MEP), can be regarded as the most suitable strategy in order to explore the electronically excited isolated nucleobases. Unfortunately, the PRPA does not appear widely in the studies reported in the last decade. The main ultrafast decay observed experimentally for the gas-phase excited nucleobases is related to the computed barrierless MEPs from the bright excited state connecting the initial Franck…
Hydrogen abstraction by photoexcited benzophenone: consequences for DNA photosensitization
2016
International audience; We report a computational investigation of the hydrogen abstraction (H-abstraction) induced by triplet benzophenone (3BP) on thymine nucleobase and backbone sugar. The chemical process is studied using both high level multiconfigurational perturbation and density functional theory. Both methods show good agreement in predicting small kinetic barriers. Furthermore the behavior of benzophenone in DNA is simulated using molecular dynamics and hybrid quantum mechanics/molecular mechanics methods. The accessibility of benzophenone to the labile hydrogens within B-DNA is demonstrated, as well as the driving force for this reaction. We evidence a strong dependence of the H-…
Model building and molecular mechanics calculations of mitoxantrone-deoxytetranucleotide complexes: Molecular foundations of DNA intercalation as cyt…
1996
Several intercalation complexes of the antitumor-active drug mitoxantrone with base paired tetranucleotides were constructed by molecular modeling using computer graphics and molecular mechanics calculations. The mitoxantrone molecule favours DNA binding into CG intercalation site. The two side chains of the drug are orientated into the major groove and fixed by hydrogen bonds with the nucleotide bases. This molecular study can be helpful for understanding the mode of action of cytostatically active compounds and to design new structurally related compounds of the anthraquinone drug type.
Intercalation of daunomycin into stacked DNA base pairs. DFT study of an anticancer drug
2008
We have computationally studied the intercalation of the antitumor drug daunomycin into six stacks of Watson-Crick DNA base pairs i.e., AT-AT, AT-TA, GC-AT, CG-TA, GC-GC, GC-CG) using density functional theory (DFT). The proton affinity of the DNA intercalater daunomycin in water was computed to be 159.2 kcal/mol at BP86/TZ2P, which is in line with the experimental observation that daunomycin is protonated under physiological conditions. The intercalation interaction of protonated daunomycin with two stacked DNA base pairs was studied through a hybrid approach in which intercalation is treated at LDA/TZP while the molecular structure of daunomycin and hydrogen-bonded Watson-Crick pairs is c…