Interplay of self-association and solvation in polar liquids.

The association constants for formation a 1:1 complex between 4-phenyl azophenol and tri-n-butylphosphine oxide were measured in mixtures of n-octane and n-decanol, n-octane and n-hexanoic acid, and n-octane and 2-ethylhexyl acetamide. The experiments provide insight into the competition between solvent self-association and solvent-solute interactions in these systems. The solvation properties of the three polar solvents are quite different from one another and from polar solvents that do not self-associate.

Influence of solvent polarity on preferential solvation of molecular recognition probes in solvent mixtures.

The association constants for formation of 1:1 complexes between a H-bond acceptor, tri-n-butylphosphine oxide, and a H-bond donor, 4-phenylazophenol, have been measured in a range of different solvent mixtures. Binary mixtures of n-octane and a more polar solvent (ether, ester, ketone, nitrile, sulfoxide, tertiary amide, and halogenated and aromatic solvents) have been investigated. Similar behavior was observed in all cases.

Molecular recognition probes of solvation thermodynamics in solvent mixtures.

High-throughput UV-Vis experiments using four molecular recognition-based probes, made by the combination of two hydrogen bond acceptors, tri-n-butylphosphine oxide and N,N'-bis(2-ethylhexyl)acetamide, and two hydrogen bond donors, 4-phenylazophenol and 4-nitrophenol, were performed. The association constants for the 1 : 1 H-bond interaction involved in each probe system were measured in mixtures of a polar and non-polar solvent, di-n-hexyl ether and n-octane, respectively. Similar behaviour was observed for all four systems.

The design, synthesis and pharmacological characterization of novel β₂-adrenoceptor antagonists.

Background And Purpose: Selective and potent antagonists for the β(2) -adrenoceptor are potentially interesting as experimental and clinical tools, and we sought to identify novel ligands with this pharmacology.

Experimental Approach: A range of pharmacological assays was used to assess potency, affinity, selectivity (β(2) -adrenoceptor vs. β(1) -adrenoceptor) and efficacy.

FieldScreen: virtual screening using molecular fields. Application to the DUD data set.

FieldScreen, a ligand-based Virtual Screening (VS) method, is described. Its use of 3D molecular fields makes it particularly suitable for scaffold hopping, and we have rigorously validated it for this purpose using a clustered version of the Directory of Useful Decoys (DUD). Using thirteen pharmaceutically relevant targets, we demonstrate that FieldScreen produces superior early chemotype enrichments, compared to DOCK.

Thrombogenic collagen-mimetic peptides: Self-assembly of triple helix-based fibrils driven by hydrophobic interactions.

Collagens are integral structural proteins in animal tissues and play key functional roles in cellular modulation. We sought to discover collagen model peptides (CMPs) that would form triple helices and self-assemble into supramolecular fibrils exhibiting collagen-like biological activity without preorganizing the peptide chains by covalent linkages. This challenging objective was accomplished by placing aromatic groups on the ends of a representative 30-mer CMP, (GPO)(10), as with l-phenylalanine and l-pentafluorophenylalanine in 32-mer 1a.

Substituent effects on aromatic stacking interactions.

Synthetic supramolecular zipper complexes have been used to quantify substituent effects on the free energies of aromatic stacking interactions. The conformational properties of the complexes have been characterised using NMR spectroscopy in CDCl(3), and by comparison with the solid state structures of model compounds. The structural similarity of the complexes makes it possible to apply the double mutant cycle method to evaluate the magnitudes of 24 different aromatic stacking interactions.

Quantification of functional group interactions in transition states.

A new version of the double mutant cycle approach has been used for the evaluation of weak noncovalent interactions in transition states.

The role of the counteranion in the cation-pi interaction.

Chemical double mutant cycles have been used to quantify cation-pi interactions in chloroform as a function of the nature of the counteranion. The cation-pi interaction is -2.5 +/- 0.

An evaluation of force-field treatments of aromatic interactions.

Experimental measurements of edge-to-face aromatic interactions have been used to test a series of molecular mechanics force fields. The experimental data were determined for a range of differently substituted aromatic rings using chemical double mutant cycles on hydrogen-bonded zipper complexes. These complexes were truncated for the purposes of the molecular mechanics calculations so that problems of conformational searching and the optimisation of large structures could be avoided.

Substituent effects on cation-pi interactions: a quantitative study.

A synthetic supramolecular complex has been adapted to quantify cation-pi interactions in chloroform by using chemical double-mutant cycles. The interaction of a pyridinium cation with the pi-face of an aromatic ring is found to be very sensitive to the pi-electron density. Electron-donating substituents lead to a strong attractive interaction (-8 kJ/mol(-1)), but electron-withdrawing groups lead to a repulsive interaction (+2 kJ/mol(-1)).

Noncovalent Assembly of [2]Rotaxane Architectures.

Reversible zinc-pyridine coordination and hydrogen-bonding interactions have been used to assemble a [2]rotaxane from three components. Cooperativity in the macrocyclization process that results in the porphyrin dimer makes the system exceptionally stable. However, the kinetic lability of the zinc-porphyrin interaction means the dimer is in dynamic equilibrium with its monomer, and this has been exploited in the construction of a [2]rotaxane.