Publications by authors named "Jorge Alberto Valle da Silva"

The Near Attack Conformation (NAC) approach states that the efficiency of an enzyme-catalyzed reaction depends on the prior attainment of optimal conditions for substrate atom organization and positioning for bond formation. These conditions are prerequisites for the transition state (TS) in which the involved atoms are within the van der Waals range of contact and positioned at an angle similar to that achieved after bond formation. The successful application of this approach to investigate the reactivation mechanism of acetylcholinesterase inhibited by nerve agents has contributed to a better understanding of this mechanism and demonstrated consistent corroboration with experimental data.

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Article Synopsis
  • This study investigates how deprotonated pralidoxime (2-PAM) can reactivate acetylcholinesterase (AChE) that has been inhibited by the nerve agent VX using quantum mechanical methods.
  • The process involves a series of addition-elimination reactions, beginning with a bimolecular substitution mechanism and the formation of a specific transition state.
  • The research builds on previous molecular mechanics findings and confirms that the reaction is plausible through the attack of deprotonated 2-PAM on the AChE-VX complex.
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The novel prophylactic agent 7-methoxytacrine-4-pyridinealdoxime is a hybrid compound formerly designed to keep acetylcholinesterase resistant to organophosphates by reactivating it in case of intoxication by such inhibitors. In rational design, a 5-carbon length-spacer hybrid compound was synthesized to evaluate its inhibitory and reactivation capabilities. In this work, theoretical results were achieved through molecular modelling techniques, taking for granted the enzymatic reactivation reaction through nucleophilic substitution.

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7-methoxytacrine-4-pyridinealdoxime (7-MEOTA-4-PA, named hybrid 5C) is a compound formerly synthesized and evaluated in vitro, together with 4-pyridine aldoxime (4-PA) and commercial reactivators of acetylcholinesterase (AChE). This compound was designed with the purpose of being a prophylactic reactivator, capable of interacting with different subdomains of the active site of AChE. To investigate these interactions, theoretical results from docking were first compared with experimental data of hybrid 5C, 4-PA, and two commercial oximes, on the reactivation of human AChE (HssAChE) inhibited by VX.

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Nerve agents and oxon forms of organophosphorus pesticides act as strong irreversible inhibitors of two cholinesterases in the human body: acetylcholinesterase (AChE; EC 3.1.1.

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The oximes 4-carbamoyl-1-[({2-[(E)-(hydroxyimino) methyl] pyridinium-1-yl} methoxy) methyl] pyridinium (known as HI-6) and 3-carbamoyl-1-[({2-[(E)-(hydroxyimino) methyl] pyridinium-1-yl} methoxy) methyl] pyridinium (known as HS-6) are isomers differing from each other only by the position of the carbamoyl group on the pyridine ring. However, this slight difference was verified to be responsible for big differences in the percentual of reactivation of acetylcholinesterase (AChE) inhibited by the nerve agents tabun, sarin, cyclosarin, and VX. In order to try to find out the reason for this, a computational study involving molecular docking, molecular dynamics, and binding energies calculations, was performed on the binding modes of HI-6 and HS-6 on human AChE (HssAChE) inhibited by those nerve agents.

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